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1BN FADLAN
Ibn Fadlan and the Land of Darkness
Arab Travellers in the Far North
IBN FADLAN
Ibn Fadlan and the Land of Darkness
Arab Travellers in the Far North
Translated with an Introduction by
PAUL LUNDE and CAROLINE STONE
PENGUIN BOOKS
Contents
List of Maps
Chronology
Introduction
Note on the Texts
Maps
IBN FADLAN AND THE LAND OF DARKNESS
Part I The Book of Ahmad ibn Fadlan 921-922
Part II The Travels of Abu Hamid al-Andalusi al-Gharnatl 1130-1155
Part III Passages from Other Geographers, Historians and Travellers
1. Qudama ibn Ja'far on Alexander in China 928-932
2. Ibn Khurradadhbih on Sallam the Interpreter and Alexander’s Wall 844
3. Ibn Hayyan on the Viking attack on Seville 844
4. Zuhri on Viking ships c. 1160
5. Ibn Khurradadhbih on the routes of the Radhanlya and the Rus c. 830
6. Ibn al-Faqlh on the Radhanlya 903
7. Ibn Khurradadhbih on exports from the western Mediterranean 885
8. Ibn Rusta on the Khazars 903-913
9. Ibn Rusta on the Burtas 903-913
10. Ibn Rusta on the Bulkars 903-913
11. Ibn Rusta on the Magyars 903-913
12. Ibn Rusta on the Saqaliba 903-913
13. Ibn Rusta on the Rus 903-913
14. Mas'udi on the Iron Gates 943
15. Mas'udI on the Khazar capital 943
16. Mas'udI on the Khazars 943
17. Mas‘udl on the khaqan of the Khazars 943
18. Mas‘udl on the Bulghars 943
19. Mas'udI on the Land of the Midnight Sun 943
20. Mas'udI on the Saqaliba 943
21. Mas'udI on the Rus 943
22. Mas'udI on a Viking raid on the Caspian c. 913
23. Miskawayh on the Rus raid on Bardha'a 943
24. Istakhri on the Khazars and their neighbours c. 951
25. Mas'udI on the fur trade 956
26. Ibrahim ibn Ya'qub on northern Europe 965
27. MuqaddasI on exports from Bulghar 985-990
28. MuqaddasI on the land of the Khazars 985-990
29. Ibn Hawqal on the trade in eunuchs 988
30. Ibn Hawqal on the fur trade and the Rus attack on Itil and Bulghar 965
31. Ibn Hawqal on Khwarazm and its trade 988
32. Ibn Hawqal on the Rus destruction of Itil 965
33. BIrunI on dog sleds, skates and silent barter c. 1030
34. The ‘Enclosed Nations’ of the far north 1118
35. MarwazI on the Rus c. 1130
36. MarwazI on Bulghar and the far north c. 1130
37. MarwazI on the Saqaliba c. 1130
38. Yaqut on Hungary 1228
39. Qazwlnl on Gog and Magog 1275
40. Marco Polo on dog sleds and the Land of Darkness 1293
41. Ibn Battuta on travel in the Land of Darkness 1332
42. Ibn Battuta on a winter journey to New Sarai 1332
43. Ibn Fadl Allah al-‘UmarI on Siberia and Alexander’s Tower 1342-1349
Appendix 1 The Khazars, c. 650-c. 965
Appendix 2 The Rus
Appendix 3 The Samanids
Appendix 4 The fur trade
Glossary
Bibliography
Notes
List of Maps
I. The Journey of Ibn Fadlan, 921-922
II. The Travels of Abu Hamid al-AndalusI al-Gharnatl, 1117-1162
III. The Routes of the Radhanlya Merchants, c. 830
IV. The Trade Routes of the Rus, 10th century
V. The Trade in Saqaliba Slaves, 10th century
VI. The Flow of Silver to the West, 9th-10th centuries
VII. The Political Divisions of Eurasia, 923
PENGUIN
CLASSICS
IBN FADLAN AND THE LAND OF DARKNESS
ibn fadlAn’s account of his journey from Baghdad to the camp of the Bulghar khan, on the
Volga River, in 921 is unique in Arabic literature. Sent as an emissary of the Abbasid caliph
Muqtadir, his mission was to deliver a message and gifts from the caliph to the recently
converted khan, who sought religious instruction for his people and wished to forge an
alliance with the Abbasids to protect himself against his powerful Jewish overlords, the
Khazars. The Bulghar encampment was far beyond the frontiers of the Islamic heartlands, and
Ibn Fadlan faithfully recounts the customs, dress and religious beliefs of the peoples through
whose territory he passed, all of whom were still pagan. In Bulghar he encountered Viking
traders who were pioneering trade routes along the Russian rivers. He witnessed and
meticulously describes a Viking ship burial, the only such description we have. Nothing is
known of Ibn Fadlan from other sources.
abu hAmid was born in al-Andalus in 1080. In 1106, he travelled to North Africa, where he
spent more than ten years, before sailing for Alexandria in 1117. En route, he passed the
island of Sicily and observed Mount Etna in full eruption. Later years saw him travelling to
Cairo, Damascus, Baghdad and Iran, before settling for two decades in the great trading city
of Saqsin. In 1150, Abu Hamid went to Hungary, where he developed close ties with the
king, Geza II, and was employed to recruit Peceneg Muslims into the cavalry. He was
allowed to depart from Hungary only on condition that he leave his son hostage to his return.
In 1153, he returned to Saqsin, before making the pilgrimage to Mecca. Settling in Baghdad
in 1155, he composed the first of the works by which he is best known today, al-Mu’rib ‘an
ba‘d ‘ajd’ib al-maghrib (Exposition of Some of the Wonders of the West). He left for Aleppo in
1165, and five years later made the last journey of his remarkable life, to Damascus. He died
there is 1170 at the age of ninety.
paul lunde spent his early years in Saudi Arabia and studied Arabic at the University of
California in Berkeley and later at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. He
has travelled widely in the Middle East and spent many years researching Arabic
geographical literature in the Vatican Library in Rome. He is now based in Cambridge,
concentrating on the maritime history of the Indian Ocean.
Caroline stone was educated at Cambridge and Kyoto University, Japan. After living many
years in Rome, she currently divides her time between Seville and Cambridge, where she is
editing and translating a series of travel accounts - Travellers in the Wider Levant - for the
Civilizations in Contact Project, funded by the Golden Web Foundation. Her publications
include books on North African embroideries and Manila shawls, and she worked with Paul
Lunde on a selection from Mas‘udi’s Meadows of Gold, published by Penguin.
For Gabriella and Bela Bollobas
Chronology
622 Year One of the Islamic calendar. First Muslim community founded by the Prophet Muhammad in Medina.
632 Death of the Prophet Muhammad. Beginning of Arab conquests.
650 Approximate date for formation of Khazar khaqanate.
661 Umayyad dynasty takes power.
711 Islamic conquest of Visigothic Spain. Arab armies reach the Indus.
730 Khazars invade Muslim territory with army of 30,000, take Ardabil and Bardha'a, and raid as far west as Mosul and
Diyarbakr.
732 Muslims defeated at Battle of Poitiers by Charles Martel. Cicek, daughter of the Khazar khaqan, married to Constantine V.
Their son is Leo IV (reigned 775-780), known as ‘Leo the Khazar’. The last Umayyad caliph, Marwan, leads an army of
40,000 into Khazar territory, but is driven back by torrential rains.
737 Marwan leads an army of 150,000 against the Khazars. The khaqan flees to the territory of the Finno-Ugric Burtas, but is
captured and converted to Islam; 20,000 Slavs living in Khazar territory are deported. No permanent Muslim occupation
results.
745 The Uighur khaqanate established.
750 The Umayyad dynasty is overthrown by the Abbasids. Around this date the Azov Bulghars, fleeing their former Khazar
masters, settle at the Samara bend of the Volga. Approximate date of the foundation of Staraia Ladoga.
758 Muslim merchants domiciled in Canton revolt.
763 The Abbasids found a new capital, Baghdad.
770 Approximate date of the foundation of the Danish Viking trading city of Hedeby.
786-809 Harun al-Rashld is caliph.
793 Vikings raid Lindisfarne; the traditional date for the beginning of the Viking Age.
798 The last Khazar attack on Muslim territory. The Abbasid dynasty and the Khazars finally make peace.
800 Approximate date that the Khazar Turkish ruling elite convert to Judaism. Harun al-Rashld sends the gift of an elephant
to Charlemagne, who becomes Holy Roman Emperor this year. The elephant is delivered by the Aghlabid ruler of North
Africa to the port of Pisa.
819 The Samanid dynasty creates a huge domain in Transoxania. Their capital is Bukhara, and the rich silver mine of
Panshir in Afghanistan is in their territory. They hold power until 1005, trading throughout Central Asia.
821 Tamlm ibn Bahri visits Balasghun in what is now Mongolia. His account is preserved by Ibn al-Faqih.
838 Swedish Vikings, called Rhos, pass through the Carolingian capital of Ingelheim on the Rhine on their return from
Constantinople. Khazars issue the unique ‘Moses’ coin.
840 Hami, the capital of the Uighur khaqanate, sacked by the Kirghiz Turks.
842 The Abbasid caliph Wathiq sends Sallam the Interpreter to ‘Alexander’s Wall’, near Hami on the Chinese border.
844 Vikings attack Lisbon and Seville. Sallam returns from his mission.
860 Vikings attack Constantinople. Cyril and Methodius attempt to convert the Khazars to Christianity and preach at the
Khazar capital. Approximate date of the foundation of Riurikovo Gorodishche by Swedish adventurer named Riurik; later
grows into Novgorod.
861 Cyril and Methodius evangelize the Balkan Bulgars.
865 The Bulgarian ruler Boris forced by Byzantines to convert to Christianity.
871-899 Alfred the Great becomes king of England.
879 Muslim, Jewish, Christian and Mazdaean merchants massacred in Canton.
885 Ibn Khurradadhbih completes the final version of his Book of Roads and Kingdoms.
886 Danelaw established in England.
897 Death of the historian and geographer Ya'qub!, author of The Book of Countries.
900 Around this date Almish, king of the Bulghars, converts to Islam.
907 Trade agreement between Rus of Kiev and Byzantines.
908-932 Muqtadir is caliph.
911 Vikings settle in Normandy.
912 Second trade agreement between Rus of Kiev and Byzantines.
913 Vikings raid the Caspian.
914 Nasr ibn Ahmad becomes ruler of the Samanid dynasty; dies 943.
921 Ahmad ibn Fadlan sent by the caliph Muqtadir to Almish ibn (Shilki) Yiltawar, king of the Bulghars.
930 Approximate date of birth of Mieszko I, duke of Polons, who reigned from c. 960 until his death in 992. He is the first
historically attested ruler of Poland, and is mentioned by Ibrahim ibn Ya'qub.
935 Approximate date of birth of Boleslav I, duke of Bohemia. Famous for murdering his brother St Wenceslas, he ruled until
his death (in 967 or 972). Ibrahim ibn Ya'qub visited Prague during the last years of his reign.
942 Sviatoslav becomes king of Kiev on the death of his father Igor; his mother Olga acts as regent until 963. He is the first
Rus of Kiev to bear a Slavic name.
943 Vikings again raid the Caspian area.
944 The Byzantine emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus writes De administrando imperii, containing a description of how
Viking merchants negotiate the rapids on the Danube.
945 Third trade agreement between Rus of Kiev and Byzantines.
956 Death of Mas'udI, author of The Meadows of Gold and Mines of Precious Gems.
960 Hasday ibn Shaprut, leader of the Sephardi community of Islamic Spain, and a famous courtier and physician,
corresponds with Joseph, the Khazar khdqdn, seeking information about his kingdom.
961 Death of the caliph ‘Abd al-Rahman III, ruler of al-Andalus, who had formed a palace guard of 14,000 Saqaliba eunuchs
in Cordoba.
965 Sviatoslav of Kiev invades Khazaria, destroys the city of Sarkel, sacks Kerch in the Crimea and later destroys Itil. Ibrahim
ibn Ya'qub visits a number of cities in northern Europe, including Mainz, Prague and Schleswig.
965-969 Sviatoslav puts an end to the Khazar empire and attacks the Volga Bulgars, exacting tribute.
972 Sviatoslav killed by Pecenegs after invading Balkan Bulgaria.
973 Cairo founded by the Fatimids.
986 Vladimir, prince of Kiev, converts to Christianity.
1000 Leif Erikson discovers Vinland.
1016-1042 Danish kings rule England.
1040 Yahuda ha-Levi writes The Book of the Khazars.
1050 Death of Birunl.
1066 Norman invasion of England. Slavs complete destruction of Hedeby, begun by the Norwegian king Harald Hardrada in
1050. The traditional date for the end of the Viking Age.
1080 Birth of Abu Hamid al-Andalus! al-Gharnatl.
1118 The Russian Primary Chronicle is completed.
1130 Abu Hamid al-Andalus! settles in Saqsin, where he lives for twenty years.
1141-1162 Geza II of Hungary reigns.
1150 Abu Hamid al-AndalusI travels to Hungary via Kiev and stays three years.
1155 Abu Hamid al-AndalusI writes Exposition of Some of the Wonders of the West.
1161 Abu Hamid al-Andalusi writes The Gift of the Hearts and Bouquet of Wonders.
1170 Death of Abu Hamid al-Andalusi.
1237 The Volga Bulghars conquered by the Mongols.
1258 Baghdad falls to the Mongols and the last Abbasid caliph is executed.
1283 Death of Qazwini, author of The Wonders of Creation.
Introduction
In 922, an Arab envoy from Baghdad named Ibn Fadlan encountered a party of Viking traders
on the upper reaches of the Volga River, not far south of the modern city of Kazan, while on
a mission to the Muslim ruler of the Bulghars. In his subsequent report he included a
meticulous and astonishingly objective description of Viking customs, dress, table manners,
religion and sexual practices, as well as the only eyewitness account ever written of a Viking
ship cremation. That the earliest description we have of the Viking way of life - and death -
should be written in the Arabic language may seem surprising. The meeting between Viking
traders and an emissary of the Abbasid caliph was not, however, as unexpected as might at
first appear, and is only one of many intriguing glimpses of life in the northern world to be
found in Arabic sources.
By the time of Ibn Fadlan, Vikings had been in contact with the Muslim world, both as
raiders and traders, for more than a century. During the late eighth century Vikings from
Sweden began trading along the Russian river systems, opening routes from the Baltic to the
Black and Caspian Seas and ultimately to the two richest markets for slaves and furs in the
world, Christian Constantinople and Muslim Baghdad. The Viking northern trade network
overlapped with the Muslim, first at the Khazar capital of Itil, 1 at the mouth of the Volga
where it flows into the Caspian, and then at Bulghar on the upper Volga at its confluence
with the Kama. It is our good fortune that when the two parties met, Ibn Fadlan should have
been present to record it.
The encounter between the representatives of two such disparate worlds was the result of a
series of complex religious, political and economic shifts that followed the creation of the
Islamic empire, which by 711 stretched from Spain to the borders of India. With the coming
to power of the Abbasids in 751, a network of maritime and overland routes was established
that linked Europe to China for the first time since the fall of the Roman empire. As good a
symbolic date as any for its inception is 800, the year Charlemagne was crowned Holy
Roman Emperor and received the congratulatory gift of an Indian elephant from the Abbasid
caliph Harun al-Rashld, shipped to Pisa from a North African port. Clearly, sea lanes and
overland routes between east and west were already open at this early date.
The hub of the system was Ibn Fadlan’s native city of Baghdad, founded in 763. It was the
capital of the Abbasid empire and the largest and richest city west of China, rivalled in
wealth and size only by Cordoba, the capital of Muslim Spain. As a multicultural and
multilingual imperial capital, Baghdad was a clearing house for geographic, commercial and
political information. News brought by merchants of the opening up of far northern lands to
commercial exploitation, along with information about other distant trading partners such as
India, China and the Indonesian archipelago, filtered into the works of the geographers,
historians and scholars working in Baghdad and regional cultural centres.
THE ROUTES OF THE RADHANlYA AND THE RUS
The earliest description of the routes linking the provinces of the empire to Baghdad was
written by the director of the Abbasid Bureau of Posts and Intelligence, Ibn Khurradadhbih.
He completed the final version of his Book of Roads and Kingdoms in 885, but it contains
material dating back to the early decades of the ninth century. One of these early documents
is a succinct description of four routes followed by an organization of Jewish merchants
called the Radhanlya on their trading journeys from ‘the land of the Franks’ to China and
back. They were multilingual, speaking Arabic, Persian, Greek, ‘Frankish’, ‘Andalusian’ and
Slavic. They exported eunuchs, slave girls and boys, brocades, furs and swords, and brought
eastern spices and aromatics back to ‘Ifranja’, the land of the Franks. Ibn Khurradadhbih’s
document is unique evidence for the existence of organized long-distance trade between
Europe and the east, both by land and sea, during a period when, it was long assumed, trade
scarcely existed in Europe except on a regional basis.
Immediately after his description of the routes of the Radhanlya, Ibn Khurradadhbih
describes two northern routes followed by the Swedish Vikings, or Rus, one leading to the
Black Sea via the Dnieper, terminating in Constantinople, the other via the Volga to the
Caspian, ending in Baghdad. The Rus traded in furs and swords, and were able to
communicate in Baghdad with Slavic-speaking slaves already resident there. Both the routes
of the Radhanlya and the Rus passed through the territory of the Khazar empire. From their
capital Itil in the Volga delta, the Judeo-Turkic Khazars dominated the emerging economies
of the northern steppes and provided the template for the earliest Rus and Slavic
principalities. 2
The northern trade was fuelled by Islamic silver. Silver dirham coins struck in Abbasid
mints flooded west along the trade routes opened by the Swedish Vikings in their millions;
hundreds of thousands have been found in Viking coin hoards. Most were obtained by Viking
traders, in Bulghar and the Khazar capital of Itil, in exchange for furs, slaves, honey, wax and
amber. Once again, it is Arabic sources that shed light on this lucrative trade, the profits from
which led to the development of the first towns in Slavic-and Finnic-speaking regions. Kiev
and Novgorod, among the earliest ‘Russian’ towns, were both originally founded as trading
posts by the Viking ‘Rus’, eventually developing into cities, losing their Viking character. By
the end of the tenth century they had become Slavic-speaking and Orthodox Christian in
faith.
IBRAHIM IBN YA'QUB
Another tenth-century Arabic source confirms the accounts of trade between early medieval
Europe and the east. A Jewish merchant from Muslim Spain named Ibrahim ibn Ya‘qub
visited a number of European cities, including Mainz, Schleswig (both in modern-day
Germany) and Prague in 965, providing the first descriptions we have of these cities in any
language. When he reached Mainz, Ibrahim was astonished to find silver dirhams struck in
913 by the Samanid ruler Nasr ibn Ahmad circulating in the markets; this was the same ruler
who received Ibn Fadlan in 921 in his capital of Bukhara (in what is today Uzbekistan), on his
way to the land of the Bulghars.
Ibrahim offers an even more surprising comment on the markets of Mainz: ‘It is
extraordinary that one should be able to find, in such far western regions, aromatics and
spices that only grow in the Far East, like pepper, ginger, cloves, nard, costus and galingale.
These plants are all imported from India, where they grow in abundance.’ If it were not for
his visit, we would not know that these towns were already important centres of
international trade at this early period. This kind of unexpected comment, challenging the
received perception of an entire period, demonstrates why the Arabic texts presented in this
volume are so valuable.
The works of Arab geographers and historians contribute scattered but tantalizing
information about northern lands and peoples, and the most important of these have been
translated in Part III. Ibn Khurradadhbih, Istakhri, Ibn Rusta, Ibn Hawqal, Muqaddasi and
Mas‘udi were all more or less contemporaries of Ibn Fadlan. They drew their information
from travellers, merchants, soldiers and even government archives. Although sometimes
difficult to interpret, these authors vividly bring to life the world of the far north. They
provide striking information on everything from the institution of sacral kingship among the
Khazars to Viking raids on Caspian towns, from the use of skis and dog sleds by peoples of
the north to techniques for fishing sturgeon.
GOG AND MAGOG AND ‘ALEXANDER’S WALL’
The regions north of the Caucasus and the peoples that inhabited them were always
peripheral to Arab writers’ primary concerns. Nevertheless, the northern lands held a
particular fascination for Muslims, for they played a crucial role in Islamic eschatology.
The Arab geographers placed the lands north of the Caucasus in the Sixth and Seventh
Climes, the northernmost of the seven divisions into which the globe was divided. The
peoples who inhabited this huge region were all considered descendants of Japheth, son of
Noah, meaning that Chinese, Turks, Bulghars, Khazars, Alans, Avars, Magyars, Slavs,
Lombards, Burgundians and Franks shared a common ancestry. They comprised the majority
of the world’s population and their numbers were ‘uncountable as the sands of the sea’ (cf.
Revelation 20:8). Beyond the Seventh Clime lay the Land of Darkness, a mysterious, mist-
shrouded land, inhabited by the tribes of Gog and Magog. These peoples, who appear in the
Qur’an (18:92-8) under the names Yajuj and Majuj, as well as the biblical books of Genesis,
Ezekiel and Revelation, were also counted among the descendants of Japheth, and were more
numerous than all the other peoples of the earth combined. They were separated from the
rest of mankind by high mountains, behind which they had been penned by a rampart of
brass and iron erected by Alexander the Great. It was believed that at the end of time, they
would break free and spread destruction throughout the earth, heralding the Apocalypse and
the final days of mankind. These conceptions reverberate throughout Islamic geographical
literature, reinforced by legends of the exploits of Alexander the Great in the Land of
Darkness. Echoes of them are found in western sources as well, most notably in Marco Polo
and The Russian Primary Chronicle.
The eschatological role of the tribes of Gog and Magog was always present in the minds of
the authors of the texts collected in this volume, and shaped their view of northern lands. It
haunted the caliph Wathiq (reigned 842-847), grandson of Harun al-Rashid, who one night in
842, in the palace of Samarra outside Baghdad, dreamed that Gog and Magog had breached
the barrier behind which they were imprisoned. He was so disturbed by the dream that he
immediately sent an agent, Sallam the Interpreter, who was adept in more than thirty
languages, to inspect ‘Alexander’s Wall’ and make certain the hordes of Gog and Magog were
still safely imprisoned. On his return to Baghdad in 844, Sallam recounted his adventures to
Ibn Khurradadhbih, who incorporated the story of his journey in his Book of Roads and
Kingdoms. Sallam’s account of his journey to Alexander’s Wall, included here, is one of the
earliest first-hand accounts in Arabic of the Central Asian route to China. 3 Despite its obvious
folklore elements, it is clearly a description of a real journey to the Great Wall of China and
additional evidence that the overland route to China was open in the mid-ninth century. The
next official mission sent by a caliph to northern lands was that accompanied by Ibn Fadlan in
921, whose account is featured in this volume.
IBN FADLAN
Ibn Fadlan’s mission was dispatched in response to an envoy sent to the caliph Muqtadir
(reigned 908-932) by the recently converted ruler of the Volga Bulghars, 4 Almish ibn (Shilki)
Yiltawar. The Bulghars were semi-nomadic, horse-riding, Turkic-speaking shamanists, who at
the time of Ibn Fadlan’s visit had set up their winter camp at the confluence of the Volga and
the Kama rivers, close to the rich sources of valuable furs in the northern forests. Almish had
asked the caliph to send someone to instruct him and his people in the Islamic faith, to help
build a mosque and to construct a fortress to defend his kingdom against his enemies. These
enemies were the Khazars, to whom he was a reluctant tributary. 5 By entering into
diplomatic relations with the caliphate, Almish was evidently hoping to ally himself with a
powerful and prestigious protector, yet one far enough away as to pose no threat to his
independence. Judging by coin finds, the bulk of northern trade was already passing through
Bulghar rather than Itil. Economic power was in the process of shifting from master to vassal.
Since the early tenth century Almish had been coining imitation Abbasid dirhams in great
quantities, and continued to do so throughout the reign of the caliph Muqtadir, who is
mentioned by name on both the coins and in the khutba, the sermon delivered before
communal prayers on Fridays.
The embassy set out from Baghdad on 21 June 921. The caliph’s envoy was Sawsan al-
Rassi, a freedman of Nadhir al-Haraml, who seems to have been a sort of chief of protocol in
the Abbasid bureaucracy. Two other freedmen accompanied the mission, Tikin the Turk and
Bars the Saqlab, 6 both of whom were chosen for their knowledge of languages and the
customs of the countries through which the mission would be travelling. The caravan
followed the old Khurasan road to Rayy and Nishapur, then crossed the river Oxus to
Bukhara, where the travellers were received by the Samanid vizier al-Jayhani, almost
certainly the famous geographer whose lost Book of Roads and Kingdoms was probably the
main source for information on northern peoples found in the later geographers.
Disappointingly, Ibn Fadlan says little of this remarkable man.
The emissaries were received by the Samanid ruler, Nasr ibn Ahmad (reigned 914-943), 7
and they read him the caliph’s letter, which commanded him to turn over the revenues of a
property in Khwarazm, owned by the disgraced Abbasid vizier Ibn al-Furat and managed by
one of his agents, to the caliph’s representative, Ahmad ibn Musa. The revenues from this
property, valued at 4,000 dinars, were intended to defray the costs of constructing the
fortress Almish had requested. Ahmad ibn Musa had not left Baghdad with the rest of the
caravan, but was supposed to follow five days later. However, Ibn al-Furat’s agent, loyal to
his master, contrived for him to be arrested on the frontier and he was imprisoned in Merv.
Unsurprisingly, the 4,000 dinars was never forthcoming, to the chagrin of Ibn Fadlan and the
rage of Almish.
The party had spent twenty-eight days in Bukhara and winter was setting in. They decided
not to wait any longer for Ahmad ibn Musa to join them; they were still unaware that he was
in jail. They returned to the Oxus and rented a boat to take them to Khwarazm, a distance of
200 farsakhs, about 600 miles. The capital was Kath, on the eastern bank of the Oxus, not far
from modern Khiva in Uzbekistan. Although geographically isolated by steppe and desert,
ancient irrigation works made the area around Kath immensely productive, and Khwarazm
had long enjoyed close commercial relations with the Khazars. The Khwarazmians were great
merchants and travellers; Ibn Hawqal says they journeyed as far as the lands of Gog and
Magog - that is, well into subarctic regions - in their search for fine furs.
Ibn Fadlan’s travelling companion, Tikin, had at one time lived in Khwarazm, and the
Khwarazmshah regarded him with great suspicion, accusing him of having once sold arms to
the Turkish tribes on his northern borders. As a loyal vassal of the Samanid amir Nasr ibn
Ahmad, the Khwarazmshah also feared that Tikin, for reasons of his own, was trying to
bypass the Samanids and establish direct contact and, perhaps, trade between Baghdad and
the Bulghars. Nevertheless, the Khwarazmshah finally gave them permission to proceed, and
the travellers continued by river to Jurjanlya (Gurganj), a distance of fifty farsakhs. They
intended to stay only a few days, but the river froze and the weather became too cold to
travel. They were forced to spend three months in Jurjanlya (December to early March)
awaiting the spring thaw.
The jurists and teachers who accompanied the embassy could not face continuing, and
returned to Baghdad, reducing the party to Sawsan, Sawsan’s brother-in-law, who is
mentioned for the first time here, Tikin and Bars. Ibn Fadlan warned his companions that if
they succeeded in reaching the camp of the king of the Bulghars, he would immediately
demand the 4,000 dinars promised in the caliph’s letter. They dismissed his fears, and the
party set off with a hired guide on 4 March 922, joining a caravan headed north. The
travellers rode for twenty-five days through what is now Kazakhstan, wrapped in so many
layers of clothing against the bitter cold that they could barely move. On the far side of a
mountain chain, they came to the Ust-Yurt, the grazing lands of the Ghuzz (Oguz) Turks. Ibn
Fadlan’s description of their way of life, religious practices and customs is invaluable as it is
the only eyewitness account we have of this important people before their conversion to
Islam.
The travellers pressed on, crossing seven more rivers until at last they reached a Peceneg
camp, probably near the Ural River. Ibn Fadlan was struck by this people’s poverty in
comparison with the Ghuzz. However, the Pecenegs too were destined to play an important
role, serving the Christian rulers of Hungary as border guards in the eleventh and twelfth
centuries. After only a day in the yurts of the Pecenegs, the party continued north, crossing
the Jayikh (Ural River), the largest and swiftest flowing river so far encountered. One of
their skin boats was lost fording the river and many men and camels drowned. They crossed
seven more rivers and entered the lands of the Bashghird, a warlike, violent and dirty people.
They were clean-shaven, wore wooden phallic charms round their necks, worshipped nature
gods, had clan totems representing fish, snakes and cranes, headhunted and ate lice. Despite
their fearsome reputation, however, they did no harm to the travellers.
The party set off once more, forded seven more rivers, and in about a month’s time
reached the lands of the Bulghars, their goal. On 12 May 922, when they were forty-eight
hours from the royal camp, they were met by four ‘kings’ sent out with their retinues to
welcome them. The next day, as they approached the camp, Almish, the ‘king of the
Saqaliba’, as Ibn Fadlan always refers to him, rode out to meet them, dismounting and
prostrating himself before them. This, of course, was extremely shocking to a Muslim, for
Muslims prostrate themselves only before God. It was the custom that most upset Ibn Fadlan,
and was ubiquitous among the peoples of the steppes. The king scattered dirhams over his
visitors as a sign of welcome; these were probably locally-coined imitation Samanid dirhams,
maintaining the weight and purity of the originals.
The envoys rested for four days while the king summoned the leaders of his people from
outlying districts to attend the reading of the caliph’s letter. When the day came, the envoys,
carrying banners, presented the king with a horse and saddle which they had brought with
them as a gift, and dressed him in black robes and turban, the Abbasid dynastic colour. Ibn
Fadlan was in his element, for he had been appointed to read out the caliph’s letter. Very
much aware of his position as a visitor from a more advanced and sophisticated civilization,
Ibn Fadlan insisted that everyone, including the king, who was very fat, stand while the
letter was read out. When he pronounced the caliph’s greeting, he paused and instructed his
audience to respond, as if the caliph himself were present. A translator rendered each phrase
into the Bulghar language as the letter was read, and when it was completed, the audience
roared Allcihu akbar! An hour later they were summoned to dinner, and Ibn Fadlan describes
the manner in which this was done, for everything he witnessed was new and strange. The
king himself cut a piece of meat for each of the guests and served them in order of
precedence. As each was served, he was brought his own individual little table. Mead was
offered, and Ibn Fadlan is careful to point out that the drink was licit, since it had only been
allowed to ferment a day and a night, so did not qualify as an alcoholic drink. He also noticed
that at prayer time the khutba, or sermon by the prayer leader, which always began with a
prayer for the ruler, referred to Almish as ‘King Yiltawar, king of the Bulghars’. 8 He informed
Almish that only God received the title ‘king’, and that the khutba must be read in his given
name and the name of his father. Almish pointed out that both his and his father’s name were
pagan, and asked if he could use the caliph’s name, which was Ja‘far. Ibn Fadlan thought this
was a good idea, and chose the name ‘Abd Allah for his father. Henceforth the khutba was
pronounced in the name of Ja‘far ibn ‘Abd Allah, retroactively converting Almish’s father.
Three days later, and just as Ibn Fadlan had feared, Almish demanded his money. Relations
between the two were poisoned from now on, for it was clear that Almish did not believe Ibn
Fadlan’s version of events, and thought he was simply refusing to hand over the money. Ibn
Fadlan was not only placed in an embarrassing and humiliating position, but a very
dangerous one: Almish was an imposing figure, and Ibn Fadlan was a long way from home.
Almish - Ja‘far, as he now was - was also highly intelligent, and the psychological pressure
he exerted on Ibn Fadlan, while both men outwardly observed diplomatic protocol, is
recorded in fascinating detail. For example, Ibn Fadlan had noticed that the muezzin gave the
call to prayer according to the Hanafi school of law, promulgated by the Samanid dynasty,
and suggested that instead the Ash‘arl form should be used, out of deference to the law
school favoured by the caliph. Almish agreed, and the new call was adopted for the next few
days. He continued, however, to badger Ibn Fadlan about the money, and when he saw he
was getting nowhere, ordered the muezzin to resume the Hanafi call to prayer. When Ibn
Fadlan protested, Almish responded with a splendid display of analogical reasoning, showing
why Ibn Fadlan, by his refusal to hand over the money, had lost all authority to admonish
him over matters of religion, for in refusing he was disobeying the caliph, his master. The
dialogue is beautifully reported, and as Ibn Fadlan engagingly admits, reduced him to silence.
He adds that henceforth Almish nicknamed him Abu Bakr the Truthful (Abu Bakr al-Siddiq),
after the sobriquet of the first caliph, who never told an untruth. The sarcasm was not lost on
him, and it is much to his credit that he reports it.
The battle of wits between the two men continued, Almish apparently seeking to frighten
his visitor by rather pointedly having his interpreter tell him the fate of a particularly
intelligent visitor from Sind, who was hanged by his travelling companions as a most suitable
sacrifice to Tengri, the sky god. Then Almish increased the pressure on Ibn Fadlan by taking
him to a dark forest to view the remains of a giant that he had had hanged. The giant had
been found swimming in the river, could not speak and was so hideous that pregnant women
miscarried when they saw him. Apparently, he was from the lands of Gog and Magog, the
threatening realm that featured so prominently in contemporary Islamic conceptions of the
Apocalypse. The sight of the giant’s remains, which included a skull the size of a beehive,
must have been a sobering experience for Ibn Fadlan: ‘I was astonished at the sight. Then I
went away.’
AMONG THE RUS
It was in the Bulghar encampment that Ibn Fadlan met the party of Rus, Viking traders who
probably came from Kiev. He describes their dress, looks, sexual behaviour, customs, hygiene
- or lack of it - and religious practices, and also gives a fine description of a Viking funeral.
The haunting figure of the ‘Angel of Death’, who strangles the slave girl who volunteers to
die with her master, does not occur in the Norse sagas, nor do many of the other
meticulously observed ceremonies, such as the ritual fornication on behalf of the deceased
with the sacrificial victim before her own death. There is no reason to question Ibn Fadlan’s
account, however. The Rus had long been trading in Baltic, Slavic and Finnish lands and had
evidently incorporated practices from local cultures with whom they lived and traded. 9
Another good illustration of the ‘acculturation’ of the Rus is the description of their ‘king’.
He was clearly a sacral ruler, modelled on the Khazar khdqan, suggesting the influence of the
Khazars on the Rus and on this point confirming other Arabic sources. The ‘king’ was installed
in a palace, sat on a throne, and his feet were not allowed to touch the ground. He was
surrounded by a retinue of 400 warriors, who were sacrificed when he died. In another
example, a lieutenant, corresponding to the Khazar bak or beg, led the men into battle. 10 All
of this was foreign to Norse tradition, but of ancient standing among the Turcic semi-nomads
of the steppes.
WONDERS
Ibn Fadlan’s account is remarkably free of ‘wonders’, the mirabilia so beloved of medieval
readers, and always expected, almost as a guarantee of authenticity, in descriptions of
unknown lands. His description of the aurora borealis, as a vision of armies battling in the
heavens, follows, as James Montgomery has pointed out, a tradition of description of such
phenomena that stretches back to classical times; however, he is also trying to communicate
an impression of a real event. 11 Ibn Fadlan was much struck by another natural phenomenon
in northern latitudes, the long summer days and long winter nights. The short days of winter
posed a real problem for Muslims, for it was difficult to fit the five stipulated prayer times
into winter days that lasted only 4V6, or farther north, 3 V 2 hours.
The giant from the land of Gog and Magog was certainly wondrous, but Ibn Fadlan is
careful to indicate that he is only relating what he was told by Almish. Perhaps the skeleton
Almish showed him in the forest was really that of a bear. At another point in the narrative,
Ibn Fadlan describes a snake he saw slithering along the trunk of a fallen tree, ‘almost as
thick and large as the tree itself’. This would appear to be unknown to science, for the only
large snake in Russia is the Amur rat-snake, which grows to the length of 180 cm. However,
the fact that Almish assured him that it was harmless shows that it probably was a ratsnake,
magnified by terror. Indeed, the only ‘wonder’ that is difficult to rationalize is the
‘rhinoceros’ Ibn Fadlan mentions; however, he is only relating what he was told by his
informant, rather than claiming to have actually seen one. The three plates of onyx-like
material, which Almish showed him and claimed came from the horn of a rhinoceros, may
have been made of the material called khutu, fossilized mammoth tusk; this was much sought
after for making knife handles because of its durability. 12
What is most striking about Ibn Fadlan’s little book is his objectivity. Much that he saw
appalled him, particularly the open sexual congress of the Rus with their slave girls and the
always shocking beliefs and practices of pagans. He nevertheless made every effort to
understand, despite the language barrier, what was going on round him. His attitude is
almost scientific in its detachment as he describes food, drink, dress, manners, beliefs,
customs, laws, taxes and burial rites - exactly the subjects a modern anthropologist would
observe. His lack of condemnatory comment is striking, for these practices surely seemed
very outlandish to a Muslim from Baghdad. Viking group sex and mixed bathing must have
deeply shocked him, but he gamely records what he saw. He tried and failed to get the
women of the Muslim community to veil, but refrains from derogatory remarks; later
travellers, like Ibn Battuta, would not show such restraint. Ibn Fadlan has a sense of humour,
and can laugh at himself: after all, there was no need to report Almish’s nickname for him.
At the time he wrote, there was no established genre of travel writing in Arabic, so Ibn
Fadlan had no model. He seems simply to have jotted down his impressions as they occurred
to him, and his book is all the better for it. He writes simply and without affectation, and
most unusually in an Arabic work, never refers to written sources. Ibn Fadlan bore the
hardships of his journey with great stoicism; indeed, his only complaint, on what was after all
a difficult and dangerous mission, was about the bitter cold. Because the account of Ibn
Fadlan’s return journey has not survived, we never learn whether Almish, the Bulghar king,
received the promised 4,000 dinars. Nor is the complex relationship between Almish and Ibn
Fadlan resolved, as it surely must have been in the fuller version, since we know from other
sources that diplomatic ties remained intact. The geographer Dimashqi (1256-1327) mentions
that the caliph Muqtadir sent a faqih to teach the principles of Islam to the recently converted
Bulghars, and that afterwards a party of Bulghars came to Baghdad intending to make the
pilgrimage to Mecca; this suggests that relations between the envoy from Baghdad and the
Bulghars were resolved amicably. 13
ABU hAmid al-andalus! al-gharnAt!
The only other Arab traveller to make his way to Bulghar and write about it was Abu Hamid
al-Gharnatl, ‘the man from Granada’ (sometimes known as Abu Hamid al-AndalusI, ‘the man
from al-Andalus’ 14 ), whose account follows that of Ibn Fadlan in this volume.
Abu Hamid was born in 1080 and left al-Andalus in 1106, never to return. He spent more
than ten years in North Africa, then in 1117 sailed for Alexandria, passing the island of Sicily
on the way and observing Mt Etna in full eruption. While there he took the opportunity of
visiting the famous lighthouse, the Pharos, which he describes in detail in his Gift of the Hearts
(Tuhfat al-albab ). He continued his studies in Cairo, where he spent the years 1118-1121,
taking time off to make a trip up the Nile to Ikhmim and gather information about the
peoples of the Sudan and beyond. In 1122 he left Cairo for Damascus, where he taught hadith
and continued his studies. The following year he went to Baghdad and was fortunate enough
to befriend the powerful and wealthy ‘Awn al-DIn Abu Muzaffar Yahya ibn Muhammad ibn
Hubayra, who treated him as a guest and granted him access to his extensive library. Abu
Hamid left in 1127 for unknown reasons, and 1130 found him in the town of Abhar in Iran.
He mentions in passing in the Tuhfat that he had visited Khwarazm three times; he may have
made his first visit sometime this year.
The following year, 1131, found Abu Hamid in Saqsin, a great trading centre and the
successor city to the old Khazar capital of Itil; this was to be his home for almost twenty
years. He visited Bulghar in 1135, but does not tell us why or how long he stayed, and in
1150 he set out for Hungary, or as he calls it Bashghird. He spent three years there, where he
had close relations with the king, Geza II (reigned 1141-62), who at one point employed him
to recruit Peceneg Muslims to serve as light cavalry. Abu Hamid was allowed to depart only
on condition that he leave his son Hamid, then in his thirties, hostage against his return. In
1153 he made his way back to Saqsin via Kiev, and rejoined his wives and concubines. His
stay was brief, however, for in 1154 he determined to make the pilgrimage. He crossed the
Caspian and made his way first to Khwarazm, then Bukhara, Merv, Nishapur, Rayy, Isfahan
and finally Basra, where he joined the hajj caravan to Mecca.
Abu Hamid returned from Mecca in 1155 and settled in Baghdad, where he composed the
first of the works by which he is best known today, al-Mu’rib ‘an ba‘d ‘aja’ib al-maghrib
(Exposition of Some of the Wonders of the West). This is a work of popular cosmology and the
‘wonders’ of North Africa and al-Andalus, dedicated to his friend and patron, the vizier ‘Awn
al-DIn. It includes, among many other miscellaneous topics, useful information on the
calendars used by the Persians, Byzantines and Arabs; instructions for finding the direction of
prayer; elements of astronomy; an explanation of latitude and longitude; and the division of
the globe into Seven Climes ( iqlim ).
Abu Hamid’s true enthusiasm was for ‘wonders’ (‘q/a’ib), deviations from the natural order
of things, such as unusual fish and birds, or man-made, such as the Pyramids, the Pharos of
Alexandria or Alexander’s Wall. Some of these wonders he saw for himself during his years of
travel in unusual places, such as the giant from the lands of Gog and Magog he met in
Bulghar, or the ‘magic mosque’ near Khwarazm; others were told to him or encountered in
written sources. As with Ibn Fadlan, it is possible to rationalize some of these accounts of
‘wonders’. Giant crossbills may not exist, but it is perfectly true that there is a bird with the
beak Abu Hamid describes, while the story of the swords thrown into the sea by the Yura
(Yughra) may simply be a misunderstanding of the use of the harpoon. Abu Hamid
interpreted these wonders, as testifying to God’s power over His creation and evidence of the
continuing intervention of the divine in the course of nature and the affairs of man.
In 1161 Abu Hamid left Baghdad and went to Mosul, probably at the invitation of Mu’in al-
DIn Abu Hafs ‘Umar ibn Muhammad ibn al-Khidr al-Ardabill, to whom Abu Hamid’s second
book, Tuhfat al-albab wa nukhbat al-‘ajd’ib (The Gift of the Hearts and Bouquet of Wonders), is
dedicated. This is a straightforward collection of ‘wonders’, natural and manmade. It proved
immensely popular, and is frequently quoted by later authors, in particular Qazwlnl in his
‘ Aja’ib al-makhluqdt (The Wonders of Creation). Abu Hamid left for Aleppo in 1165, and five
years later made the last journey of his remarkable life, to Damascus, where he died in 1170
at the age of ninety. It seems that he never returned to ransom his son Hamid in Hungary and
never rejoined his womenfolk in Saqsin.
Abu Hamid spent twenty-four years living and travelling in Saqsin, Bulghar and Hungary,
and was clearly an observant man, yet he is silent about much that we would like to know.
Although he occasionally refers to his family, he is reticent about how he earned a living. As
a learned Muslim, he was clearly in demand, and lost no opportunity to spread his faith and
correct the erring. He never mentions serving in any official capacity. Perhaps like other
Muslim travellers he combined his role as Muslim ‘consultant’ with trade, for which Saqsin
and Bulghar offered limitless opportunities, especially in slaves and furs.
Nevertheless, what he does tell us is precious, not least for what he reveals about the
enormous upheavals that had taken place in the steppes since the time of Ibn Fadlan, two-
hundred-forty years earlier. The once powerful Khazar khaqanate was not even a memory;
the Samanid dynasty had come to an end in 1005; and the Rus had long since merged with
the Slavic population and become Orthodox Christians. In fact, the Volga Bulghars were the
only state from the time of Ibn Fadlan to survive, still trading at the confluence of the Volga
and Kama. Some changes were particularly telling, such as the alteration in currency since
the time of Ibn Fadlan. The coins in circulation at Saqsin, Abu Hamid tells us, were all of base
metal. The fall of the Samanids in 1005 had resulted in a ‘silver famine’ that was reflected in
the sudden drop in dirham hoards in eleventh-and twelfth-century Russia, Baltic lands and
Scandinavia, for almost all the sources of the silver that circulated through the northern trade
routes lay in Samanid territory. 15
Abu Hamid’s account of Saqsin, the Khazar capital that replaced Itil and may have occupied
the same site, shows just how much had altered since the time of Ibn Fadlan. Itil had been
destroyed by Sviatoslov of Kiev, the first Rus prince to bear a Slavic name, in 965, and the
Khazar khaqanate had collapsed; even the memory of the Jewish khaqan had vanished. The
town - or perhaps city - was now entirely Muslim, the majority following the Hanafi school
of law. Forty tribes of Ghuzz Turks, dwelling in round felt tents big enough to hold a hundred
or more men, now inhabited the town, each with its own chief. The Ghuzz were still
Shamanist when encountered by Ibn Fadlan, but by the end of the tenth century they had
become Muslims. Many served the rulers of Khwarazm and Transoxania as auxiliary troops,
and as so often happened, these men had soon become strong enough to seize power
themselves, taking Nishapur in 1038 and Baghdad in 1055, founding the Seljuk dynasty. Ibn
Fadlan could never have imagined that the herdsmen through whose territory he passed
would in little more than a century come to rule the Islamic empire from his own native city
of Baghdad.
When Ibn Fadlan visited Bulghar, the ruler was a vassal of the Khazars, his son held
hostage at the Khazar court in Itil. By Abu Hamid’s time, Itil had become Saqsin and a
Bulghar amir was quartered in the centre of the town, supported by his tribes-men. The Volga
Bulghars, taking advantage of the destruction of the Khazar empire by the Rus in 965, had
clearly extended their political and commercial control all the way south to Saqsin, perhaps
in affiliation with the Ghuzz, on whose tents Abu Hamid remarked.
There had also been great changes in Bulghar itself since Ibn Fadlan’s day. In 922, Bulghar
was a seasonal market some 3 miles from the eastern bank of the Volga. There were no
permanent dwellings, simply the characteristic felt yurts of the semi-nomads. When Abu
Hamid was there in 1130, it was a ‘great city’ with wooden houses, walled with an oak
stockade. There were villages in its environs and the king levied tribute on ‘infinite peoples’
to the north. Bulghar had also become the leading market for furs in the world, exporting
enormous quantities of beaver, sable and mink to Islamic, Indian and Chinese markets.
Nevertheless, despite these changes, some aspects of life remained constant: slaving, for
example, was still a major industry. When the rivers were frozen, the king led winter raids
against the pagan peoples of the far north, carrying off their women, children and horses.
These captives were sold in Bulghar and distributed to the urban centres of the Islamic
heartlands.
By the time of Abu Hamid, the memory of Ibn Fadlan’s embassy had also completely faded.
According to Abu Hamid, the conversion of the Bulghars to Islam had occurred at the hands
of a Muslim merchant with a knowledge of medicine, who agreed to cure the king and his
queen, both afflicted with a serious illness, on condition that they and their people embrace
Islam. The treatment was successful and the Bulghars became Muslim. The Khazar king,
furious at their conversion, invaded Bulghar territory but was defeated in battle. Pious
legend, it would seem, had already overtaken history.
The topoi of descriptions of northern lands and peoples were established early in Arabic
geographic literature: intense cold, long nights, bad hygiene, independent women, saunas,
silent barter, fearsome giants, strange fish, pervasive idolatry and, always hovering in the
background, the apocalyptic tribes of Gog Magog straining to break through Alexander’s
Wall. Fact was mixed with fantasy, yet as can be seen from the texts translated in this volume
a surprising amount of ‘hard’ information was also recorded, some of it corroborated only
recently by archaeological discoveries. Ibn Fadlan’s gripping narrative, however, still stands
almost alone in Arabic literature for its immediacy, personal flavour and balanced description
of the lives and customs of the peoples of the north at a critical stage in their history. Apart
from the novelistic account of Sallam the Interpreter, it is the earliest first-person travel
narrative in Arabic. It had no imitators. Ibn Jubayr and Ibn Battuta, the two best-known Arab
travellers, followed a different tradition and neither shared the inquiring mind and
objectivity of Ibn Fadlan.
The late Michael Crichton was so struck by reading a passage from Ibn Fadlan in an
anthropology course as a student that he was inspired to write his first novel, Eaters of the
Dead (1976), an amusing and imaginative attempt to use the alleged discovery in a Greek
monastery of a complete manuscript of Ibn Fadlan’s journey to extend his travels to
Scandinavia, where he witnessed Grendel’s attack on the hall of Rothgar as recounted in the
Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf. 16 The imposture is made even more believable by the fact that the
early chapters, up to the Viking funeral, really are a translation of Ibn Fadlan, and the rest is
narrated in the same style. In the introduction, speaking in the guise of Professor Per Fraus-
Dolus (‘Professor Through Fraud and Trickery’), ‘Professor Emeritus at the University of
Oslo’, Crichton wrote: ‘Ibn Fadlan himself is clearly an intelligent and observant man. He is
interested in both the everyday details of life and the beliefs of the people he meets. Much
that he witnessed struck him as vulgar, obscene, and barbaric, but he wastes little time in
indignation; once he expresses his disapproval, he goes right back to his unblinking
observations. And he reports what he sees with remarkably little condescension.’ The
professor may have been a fraud, but his judgement of Ibn Fadlan could not be bettered.
Note on the Texts
IBN FADLAN
The first to recognize the importance of Ibn Fadlan’s account was Yaqut, author of an
immense and authoritative geographical dictionary, the Mujam al-bulddn (Lexicon of
Countries). In 1219 he visited Merv, in what is now Turkmenistan, and was granted access to
two extensive private libraries; the following year found him in Jurjanlya (Gurganj), the
capital of Khwarazm and the last city visited by Ibn Fadlan before setting off overland for
Bulghar. It is probable that it was in one of these two places that he came across Ibn Fadlan’s
report on the embassy of 921, which Yaqut always refers to by the title risdla, (report, letter).
Yaqut incorporated much of the work in his lexicon, arranging the relevant information
under the entries for Itil, Burtas, Burghar, Bulghar, Bashghurt, Khazar, Khwarazm, Rus,
Saqlab and Wisu. (In the entry under Itil, he ascribes a long passage to Ibn Fadlan that is
actually taken from Istakhri.) If Yaqut did find the manuscript in Khurasan, it was in the nick
of time. Rumours of the Mongol advance reached him while he was in Gurganj and he
decided to take refuge in Aleppo, setting off in 1220. The following year the Mongol army
razed Gurganj to the ground and flooded the site by diverting the waters of the Oxus.
In 1823, almost exactly 900 years after Ibn Fadlan’s journey, the Russian scholar Christian
Fraehn (1782-1851), professor of Arabic and Persian at Kazan University, published a
brilliant study of the passages from Ibn Fadlan preserved in Yaqut’s dictionary, relating them
to other Arabic and Persian sources. Fraehn was a rigorous and careful scholar (he required
his students to learn Persian, Turkish, Latin and Arabic, and expelled Leo Tolstoy for poor
academic performance), and his Ibn Fozlan’s und anderer Araber Berichte iiber die Russen alterer
Zeit is still a mine of information. Fraehn was the first to recognize the importance of Ibn
Fadlan’s report for Russian history, since it pre-dates the earliest Russian written source, The
Russian Primary Chronicle of 1113, by almost two hundred years and sheds new light on the
Rus, the Scandinavian immigrants who played an important role in the birth of medieval
Russia and lent it their name. His pioneering work on Ibn Fadlan was followed by other
seminal publications, particularly on numismatics, which laid the foundations for scholars
studying the spread of Islam in Eurasia. Because our written sources are so fragmentary for
the ninth and tenth centuries, the periods when the first principalities were formed in what is
now Russia and the Ukraine, the study of numismatics has continued to be of great
importance.
It fell to another scholar from Kazan, Ahmed Zeki Validi Togan (1890-1970), to make a
real breakthrough in the study of Ibn Fadlan. Zeki Validi Togan was a revolutionary and
Bolshevik who had grown disenchanted with Lenin’s policies towards his native Tartaristan
and been forced to flee the country, taking refuge in Iran in 1923. In the library of the shrine
of the Imam Reza in Mashhad, he discovered a manuscript dating from the eleventh century
containing a number of geographical works, including the two epistles of Abu Dulaf Mis‘ar
ibn al-Muhalhil, the first half of the Kitab al-bulddn of Ibn al-Faqlh and an account of Ibn
Fadlan’s journey to Bulghar. Zeki Validi Togan’s translation, accompanied by exhaustive and
illuminating notes, was published in Leipzig in 1939.
The Mashhad text of Ibn Fadlan is very similar, but not identical, to that preserved by
Yaqut. Some small differences in wording may be the result of editorial interventions by
Yaqut, but others are not so readily explained. The Mashhad text is also incomplete; it breaks
off abruptly in the middle of a passage describing the Khazar khaqanate. Yaqut several times
mentions that the version he used included an account of Ibn Fadlan’s return journey to
Baghdad; if so, he made no use of it and this portion of the manuscript has vanished. What is
clear is that both the Mashhad manuscript and the text used by Yaqut present abbreviated
versions of a longer original.
This translation follows the Arabic text published by Dahhan (1959), which faithfully
reproduces the Mashhad manuscript. We have compared the text throughout with the clear
photographs of the manuscript reproduced by Kovalevskii (1956), occasionally differing from
Dahhan’s readings; these have been pointed out in the Notes. Every effort has been made to
follow the original as closely as possible, consistent with readability. The headings have been
inserted by the editors to help the reader navigate through the text, and are not in the
original.
ABU hAmid al-andalusi al-gharnAti
The text of Abu Hamid’s travels survives in a single source: the last nineteen folios (96a-
114b) of an undated manuscript of his al-Mu’rib ‘an ba‘d ‘aja’ib al-maghrib (Exposition of Some
of the Wonders of the West), Gayangos Collection XXXIV, in the Real Academia de la Historia,
Madrid.
The account starts in mid-sentence, and is unrelated to the preceding passage, an account of
famous mountain chains. The missing beginning was almost certainly an account of Darband
and the Caucasus, for it was from there that Abu Hamid set off for Saqsin, where he was to
reside for twenty years. The narrative ends with his expression of thanks to his patron ‘Awn
al-DIn for supplying him with a letter to the ruler of Konya, allowing him to pass through his
territory on his way back to Hungary.
This translation follows the edition of the Arabic text by Dubler (1953), which is
accompanied by a Spanish translation and extensive commentary. The headings have been
added to help guide the reader through the text, and are not in the original. The title is also
our own.
PASSAGES FROM OTHER GEOGRAPHERS, HISTORIANS AND TRAVELLERS
Brief biographical information and the source of the text is given in a headnote to the first
extract by each author.
The Arabic definite article aHias been omitted from recurring personal names, hence
Muqtadir, not al-Muqtadir; Mas‘udi, not al-Mas‘udi. Although ungrammatical, it was felt that
these truncated forms were easier on the eye in a text already somewhat overburdened with
transcriptions from the Arabic. Familiar place names are given in their modern form.
The Islamic hijri calendar is lunar and therefore the hijri year is eleven days shorter than the
solar year. Year 1 of the Islamic calendar corresponds to ad 622, when the Prophet
Muhammad made the hijra, or ‘emigration’, from Makka (Mecca) to Medina at the head of
the early Muslim community. In the translation, Islamic dates are given first, followed by the
corresponding date in the Gregorian calendar (e.g. 301/912); the abbreviations ah (= Anno
Hegirae ) and ad (= Anno Domini) have been thought unnecessary.
The Arabic script is ill-suited to the transcription of non-Semitic languages. The difficulty is
compounded by the fact that a number of letters in the Arabic alphabet are distinguished
from one another only by dots placed above or below the letter. Depending on the position of
the dots, the letter form of the second letter of the Arabic alphabet, for example, can be read
b, t, th, n or y. Scribes often simply omitted these crucial marks, relying upon the reader to
supply them. Several generations of scholars have worked on the identification of the non-
Arabic place names in these texts, and most have been satisfactorily identified. (See also Part
III, note 50.) The texts collected here still present wide variations in their transcriptions of
place names and even of well-known tribal names, such as Bashghird and Bulghar, the former
with numerous variants, the latter sometimes occurring as Bulkar and Bulqar. These variant
transcriptions are significant, and have been retained, for they provide evidence of the
relationships among the texts and sometimes the language of informants.
0
PARTI
THE BOOK OF AHMAD IBN FADLAN 921-922
This is the book of Ahmad ibn Fadlan al-‘ Abbas ibn Rashid ibn Hammad, the client of
Muhammad ibn Sulayman, the envoy of the caliph Muqtadir 1 to the king of the Saqaliba 2 in
which he tells of all he saw in the lands of the Turks, the Khazars, the Rus, the Saqaliba, the
Bashghirds and others, their various customs, news of their kings and their current status.
Ahmad ibn Fadlan said:
When the letter arrived from Almish ibn (Shilki) Yiltawar, 3 king of the Saqaliba, addressed
to Muqtadir, the Commander of the Faithful, in which he asked for someone who could
instruct him in the Faith, teach him the laws of Islam, build him a mosque and erect a minbar 4
so that he could have the prayers said in his name 5 in his lands and in all parts of his kingdom
and also requesting that a fortress be built, for defence against the kings who were his
adversaries, a favourable answer was given.
The envoy sent to him was Nadhir al-Haraml. 6 I was given the responsibility for reading
the letter to the king, making over to him the gifts that had been sent him and supervising
the teachers and jurists. The king was assigned a sum of money, which was to be delivered to
him, to carry out the construction work we have already mentioned and to pay the salaries of
the legal scholars and teachers, from the revenues of the town known as Arthakhushmithan 7
in the lands of Khwarazm, which forms part of the estates of Ibn al-Furat. 8
The envoy sent to Muqtadir by the ruler of the Saqaliba was a man called Ibn Bashtu al-
Khazari. The envoy from the caliph 10 was Sawsan al-RassI, a freedman of Nadhir al-Haraml,
together with Tikin the Turk and Bars the Saqlab. 11 1 accompanied them, as I have said, and
delivered the gifts to the king and his wife, children and brothers, as well as to his warlords,
including the medicine he had requested in a letter to Nadhir.
Departure from Baghdad
We set out from the City of Peace (Baghdad) on Friday, 11 Safar 309/21 June 921. We
stayed one day at Nahrawan and set out again, marching at speed, and reached Daskara. We
stayed there three days and then continued without halting 1 until we reached Hulwan. We
stayed there for two days and set out for Qirmisin. 13 We stayed there for two days and then
made for Hamadhan where we spent three days.
The Road to Transoxiana
We then continued our journey and reached Sawa. We stayed there two days and set out for
Rayy, where we spent eleven days waiting for Ahmad ibn ‘All, SuTuk’s brother, because he
was at Khuwar al-Rayy. 14 Then we headed for Khuwar al-Rayy and stayed there three days.
Next, we made for Simnan and thence to Damaghan, where by chance we ran across Ibn
Qarin, the agent of the Da’I. 5 We concealed ourselves in the caravan and hastened on our
march as far as Nishapur.
Layla ibn al-Nu‘man had just been killed. We met Hamawayh Kusa, 16 the commander of
the army of Khurasan. Then we set out for Sarakhs and on to Merv and then on to
Qushmahan, 1 ' which is the fringe of the desert of Amul. We stayed there for three days to
allow the camels to rest before setting out into the desert. Then we crossed the desert to
Amul. Next, we crossed the Jayhun (Oxus) and came to Afirabr, 18 the ribat of Tahir ibn ‘AIL
From there we travelled to Baykand.
Bukhara
Then we entered Bukhara and went to Jayhanl, 19 the secretary of the amir of Khurasan, who
was called in Khurasan ‘The Venerable Support’ [ al-shaykh al-‘amid ]. He gave orders that we
should be provided with a house and sent us a man to attend to our needs and provide us
with everything we might want. We spent several days waiting and then Jayhanl requested
an audience for us with Nasr ibn Ahmad. 20 We came before him and found he was a beardless
youth. We greeted him with the title of amir. He commanded us to sit down and the first
thing he asked us was:
‘How did you leave our master, the Commander of the Faithful? May God prolong his life
and his good health - his and that of his officers and ministers!’
‘We left him in good health,’ we replied.
‘May God increase his well-being!’ he exclaimed.
Next, he was read the letter [commanding him] to transfer [the revenues of]
Arthakhushmithan from al-Fadl ibn Musa, the Christian, agent of Ibn al-Furat, to Ahmad ibn
Musa al-Khwarazml. He was also required to let us set out, provided with a letter for his
governor in Khwarazm, ordering him not to hinder our mission. He was also to send a letter
to the Gate of the Turk [ordering] an escort for us and not to place any difficulties in our
path. 21
‘Where is Ahmad ibn Musa?’ asked the amir.
‘We left him in the City of Peace (Baghdad). He was supposed to set out five days after us,’
we told him.
He replied:
‘I hear and I obey the order of our lord, the Commander of the Faithful - may God prolong
his existence!’
The news reached Fadl ibn Musa, the Christian, Ibn al-Furat’s agent, and he used a trick to
deal with Ahmad ibn Musa. He wrote as follows to the heads of Public Security along the
Khwarazm Road from the military district of Sarakhs to Baykand:
‘Keep your eyes peeled for Ahmad ibn Musa al-Khwarazmi in the caravanserais and
customs’ posts. He is a man of such and such a description. If you run across him, lock him up
until you receive our letter about the matter.’
He was in fact caught at Merv and put in jail.
We stayed at Bukhara for twenty-eight days. Fadl ibn Musa had come to an agreement with
‘Abd Allah ibn Bashtu and others of our companions, who said:
‘If we stay any longer, winter will come and we will not be able to travel. When Ahmad
ibn Musa gets here, he can catch up with us.’
Coinage of Bukhara
I saw different kinds of dirhams in Bukhara, some called ghitrifi dirhams, 22 made of copper,
brass and bronze. They are counted out, without being weighed, a hundred to a silver
dirham. This is the way they settle the dowry of their women: so-and-so, the son of so-and-so,
marries so-and-so, the daughter of so-and-so, for so many thousands of ghitrifi dirhams. This is
how property and slaves are sold as well. They don’t use any other type of dirhams for these
purposes. They also have another type of bronze dirham, of which forty make up a ddnaq.
They also have a type of bronze dirham known as Samarqandi, six of which are worth a
ddnaq.
Khwarazm
When I had heard the words of ‘Abd Allah ibn Bashtu and others warning me against the
approach of winter, we left Bukhara to head back to the river and hired a boat to take us to
Khwarazm. 23 The distance there from the place where we rented the boat 2 is more than two
hundred farsakhs. We only travelled for part of each day - it was impossible to travel all day
because of the intense cold, which lasted until we reached Khwarazm. We went at once to the
ruler of the town, the Khwarazm Shah Muhammad ibn ‘Iraq. 25 He showed us honour,
admitted us to his presence and lodged us in a house.
After three days, he summoned us to discuss the question of visiting the land of the Turks.
He said to us:
‘I will not give you permission to go, for it is not licit for me to allow you to risk your
lives. I know that this is really all a trick thought up by this ghulam - that is, Tikin - for
among us, he was a blacksmith, engaged in selling iron in the land of the Infidels. 26 It was he
who led Nadhir into error and induced him to speak to the Commander of the Faithful, and it
was he who arranged for the letter of the king of the Saqaliba to be delivered. The noble amir
- that is, the amir of Khurasan - would have more right to have the prayers read in the name
of the Commander of the Faithful in that country, if he thought it advisable. Furthermore,
between the country of which you speak and where you are now, there are a thousand tribes
of unbelievers. The caliph has been misled in all this. I will give you a piece of good advice.
You must write to the noble amir, so that he can get in touch with the caliph - may God
strengthen him! - by letter. As for you - you must remain here until the answer arrives.’
At that point, we left him. Later, we went back and kept trying to get into his good graces,
flattering him and saying:
‘Here are the orders of the Commander of the Faithful and his letter. Why refer to him
again on this subject?’
Finally, he gave us permission to continue on our journey. We went from Khwarazm to
Jurjanlya, which is fifty farsakhs away by river.
Coinage and language of Khwarazm
I noticed that the dirhams of Khwarazm are false, adulterated with lead or bronze. They call
the dirham tazja and it weighs four and a half danaqs. The money changers sell ki‘ab,
ddwdmdt 27 and dirhams. The Khwarazmians are the most barbarous of people, both in speech
and customs. Their language sounds like the cries of starlings. In their country there is a
village one day’s journey away called Ardakuwa whose inhabitants are known as Kardallya, 28
and their speech sounds exactly like the croaking of frogs. They deny the legitimacy of the
Commander of the Faithful, ‘All ibn Abi Talib - may God be content with him! - at the end of
each prayer. 29
The Jayhun River freezes
We stayed at Jurjanlya for several days. The Jayhun River froze for its entire length and the
ice was seventeen spans thick. 30 Horses, mules, donkeys and carts slid over the ice as if on
roads, and the ice was solid and did not crack. The river remained like this for three months.
The cold of hell
We saw a land which made us think a gate to the cold of hell had opened before us. When
snow falls, it is always accompanied by a rough and violent wind. In this country, when a
man wishes to make a nice gesture to a friend and show his generosity, he says: ‘Come to my
house where we can talk, for there is a good fire there.’ But All-Powerful God has given them
abundant firewood, and it is very cheap: two of their dirhams will buy a wagonload of tagh
wood, amounting to some 3,000 rad.
It is the rule among them that beggars do not wait at the door, but come into the house
and sit for an hour by the fire to warm up. Only then does the beggar say pekend, in other
words, ‘bread’. 31
Our stay in Jurjanlya was protracted, for we remained there a few days of the month of
Rajab and then the months of Sha‘ban, Ramadan and Shawwal. The cold and the hardships
it causes were the reasons for the length of our stay.
I was told, in fact, that two men set out with twelve camels to load wood in the forest, but
they forgot to take flint and tinder with them. They had to spend the night without a fire and
in the morning their camels were dead from the terrible cold. I saw how the intense cold
made itself felt in this country: the roads and markets were so empty that one could wander
through most of them without seeing a soul or coming face to face with another living being.
Coming from the bathhouse, on returning to the house I looked at my beard. It was a block
of ice, which I had to thaw in front of the fire. I slept in a house, inside which was another,
inside which was a Turkish felt tent. I was wrapped in clothes and furs, but in spite of that
my cheek froze to the pillow. I saw cisterns in that country lagged with sheepskins, so that
they would not crack or burst, but it did no good. In truth, I saw the earth split and great
crevasses form from the intense cold. I saw a great tree split in two from the same cause.
Folding boats
When we were in the middle of the month of Shawwal 309/February 922, the weather began
to change and the ice on the Jayhun melted. We then set about obtaining what we needed for
the journey. We bought Turkish camels and had boats made out of camel skin, 33 to allow us
to pass the rivers we needed to cross in the land of the Turks. We laid in three months’
supply of bread, millet and dried and salted meat.
Dressing for the cold
The local people, with whom we were on friendly terms, urged us to be prudent as regards
clothing and to take large quantities. They made it sound very frightening and serious. When
we saw the reality with our own eyes, however, we realized that it was twice as bad as we
had been told. Each of us was wearing a tunic and over that a caftan, on top of that a cloak of
sheepskin and over that again a felt outer garment, with a head covering that left only the
two eyes visible. Each of us wore a plain pair of trousers and another padded pair, socks,
horse-hide boots and over those boots, other boots, so that when any of us mounted a camel,
he could hardly move because of all the clothes he was wearing.
We now parted company with the jurist, the teacher and the ghulam, who had set off from
Baghdad with us, because they were afraid to enter this country. I travelled with the envoy,
his brother-in-law and the two ghulam, Tikin and Bars.
Ibn Fadlan warns his companions
When the day came for us to set out, I said to them: ‘O people! The king’s ghulam is with you
and he knows everything that is going on. You are carrying letters from the caliph and I am
quite sure that they mention the 4,000 musayyabi dinars that are intended for him. You are
going to a foreign king. He will demand this money.’
‘Don’t worry about that,’ they said to me, ‘he won’t ask us for it.’
I warned them and said:
‘I know that he will demand it.’
But they would not listen.
The caravan to the land of the Turks
The caravan was extremely well organized. We hired a guide, called a kilavuz, 34 who was
from al-Jurjanlya. Next we put our trust in God, mighty and powerful, and placed our fate in
His hands. We set out from al-Jurjanlya on Monday, 2 Dhu al-Qa‘da 309/4 March 922. We
stopped at a ribat called Zamjan, which is at the Gate of the Turks. 35 Then we set out on the
following morning and reached a place called Jit. A great deal of snow fell, so that the
camels were floundering in it up to their knees. We stayed at this wayside station for two
days and then we entered the land of the Turks, marching on across this flat, desert-like
steppe without ever turning aside from the road or meeting a soul. We journeyed for ten
days, suffering from endless difficulties, from exhaustion, intense cold and the constantly
falling snow. Compared to this, the days of cold in Khwarazm were like summer days. We
forgot all that had happened to us in the past and almost perished.
An attempt at conversion
One day, we were suffering from the most terrible cold. Tikin was travelling at my side and
next to him a Turk, who was talking to him in Turkish. Tikin began to laugh and said to me:
‘This Turk wants to say this to you; “What does our Lord want of us? He is going to make
us die of cold. If we knew what He wanted, we could bring it to Him.’”
I replied:
‘Tell him that what He wants of you is this: that you should say: “There is no god but
God.’”
He began to laugh and answered:
‘If we had been taught how to say this, we would say it.’
Then, we continued on our march until we reached a place where there were great
quantities of tagh wood. We stopped there and the caravan lit a fire. They warmed up and
stripped off their clothes to dry them. We continued on our way each night, from midnight
until afternoon or midday, moving as fast as we could and over the longest stages possible.
Then we would halt. After having marched like this for fifteen nights, we reached a great
mountain, very rocky, through which streams fought their way, filling depressions with
water and forming pools.
The Ghuzz Turks
When we had crossed that mountain we came to a tribe of Turks called Ghuzz (Oguz). They
were nomads, who live in felt tents and come and go. You see their tents, first in one place,
then in another, as is the way of nomads, depending on their movements. They live in
poverty, like wandering asses. They do not worship God, nor do they have recourse to
reason. They do not worship anything, but call their great men ‘Lords’. 36 When one of them
asks his leader’s advice on something, he says: ‘Lord, what should I do about this or that
matter?’
‘Their political regime is based on consultation among themselves.’ 37 Nevertheless, when
they have agreed on something and have decided to do it, the basest and most wretched of
them can come and break the agreement. I have heard them say: ‘There is no god but God;
Muhammad is the Messenger of God’ to make a good impression on the Muslims who stay
with them, but they do not believe in this firmly. If one of them suffers an injustice, or
something bad happens to him, he lifts his head to heaven and says ‘bir tengrf, which means
‘by the one God’ in the language of the Turks, for bir in Turkish means one and tengri is God.
Filth and immodesty
They do not wash after polluting themselves with excrement and urine. They do not wash
after major ritual pollution \jandba], or any other pollution. They have no contact with
water, especially in winter. Their women do not veil themselves before their own men or
strangers. Similarly, the women do not hide any part of their body. One day, we went to the
home of one of them and sat down. This man’s wife was with us. As we were talking, she
bared her private parts and scratched while we stared at her. We covered our faces with our
hands and each said:
‘I seek forgiveness from God!’
Her husband began to laugh and addressing the interpreter, said:
‘Tell them this: she uncovers her private parts in your presence and you see them, but she
protects them and allows no one near. Better than covering them up and letting you get at
them!’
The punishment for adultery
Adultery is unknown, but if they learn that someone has committed an act of that kind, they
split him in two in the following way: they bend down the branches of two trees, tie him to
the branches and let the trees spring back into their original position. Thus the man who has
been tied to the two trees is split in two.
A theological discussion
One of them, having heard me recite the Qur’an and liked it, went to the interpreter and said:
‘Tell him not to stop!’
One day, this man said to me through the interpreter:
‘Ask that Arab, whether our great and powerful Lord has a wife.’
I found this deeply shocking and pronounced the phrases:
‘Glory to God!’ and ‘I ask forgiveness of God!’
The Turk said: ‘Glory to God!’ and ‘I ask forgiveness of God!’ just as I had done.
That is a Turkish habit. Every time he hears a Muslim pronounce the phrases ‘Glory to
God!’ and ‘There is no god but God!’, he repeats them too.
Turkish marriage customs
Here are some of the Turkish marriage customs. If one of them asks another for one of the
women of his family in marriage, whether it is his daughter, his sister or any other woman he
possesses, in exchange for such and such a quantity of robes from Khwarazm, he carries off
the woman as soon as he has paid his debt. Sometimes the bride price consists of camels, or
horses, or other things. No one can get a wife if he has not paid the bride price agreed with
the woman’s guardian. Once he has paid for her, he comes without the slightest shame, walks
into the house where the woman is and takes possession of her in front of her father, her
mother and her brothers, and they do not stop him.
If a man dies leaving a wife and children, his eldest son takes her to wife, provided she is
not his mother.
Taboo on washing
None of the merchants, or indeed any Muslim, can perform his ablutions in their presence
after a major pollution; it must be done at night where they cannot see him, otherwise they
become angry and say:
‘This man wants to put a spell on us - he is practising hydromancy.’
And then they fine him.
Hospitality
No Muslim can cross their country without having made friends with one of them, with
whom he stays and to whom he brings gifts from the lands of Islam - a robe, a veil for his
wife, pepper, millet, raisins and walnuts. When he arrives at his friend’s house, the latter
pitches a tent for him and brings him as many sheep as his fortunes permit, so that the
Muslim can take charge of slaughtering them, for the Turks do not cut the animal’s throats,
they only hit the sheep on the head until it is dead.
If one of the Muslims wants to leave and some of his camels or horses are unwell, or if he
needs money, he leaves the sick camels with his Turkish friend, borrows the camels, horses
and money that he needs, and sets out. When he returns from his journey, he pays off his
debt and gives him back his camels and horses. Similarly, when an unknown man comes to a
Turk and says to him:
‘I am your guest and I want your camels and horse and dirhams’, he gives him what he
wants.
If the merchant dies on the journey he has undertaken, the Turk goes to the people in the
caravan when it returns and says to them:
‘Where is my guest?’
If they say: ‘He died!’, he has the man’s baggage unloaded from the caravan. He then goes
to the most important merchant he sees among them, opens his packs of merchandise while
the merchant looks on, and takes exactly the money that is owing to him and nothing more.
Similarly, he takes several of his camels and horses, and says to him:
‘He was your cousin, and you are the most appropriate person to pay his debts.’
If the man has fled, the Turk does the same thing, going to the merchant and saying:
‘He was a Muslim like you. Take responsibility for him!’
If he does not find his Muslim guest along the caravan route, he asks his companions:
‘Where is he?’
Once he has been told where to look, he sets out in search of him, travelling for days until
he finds him. He then takes back his possessions in addition to any gifts he may have given
him.
Host responsible for death of his guest
This is how the Turk behaves when he enters Jurjanlya. He enquires about his guest and stays
with him until he leaves. If the Turk dies in the house of his friend the Muslim and that man
happens to be in a caravan going through Turkish territory, the Turks kill him, saying:
‘You killed him by holding him prisoner. If you hadn’t shut him up, he wouldn’t have died.’
In the same way, if the Muslim has the Turk drink wine and the man falls off a wall, the
Turks kill the Muslim for that. If the Muslim in question is not in the caravan, they take the
most important man in the caravan and kill him.
Pederasty
They consider pederasty a terrible thing. A man from Khwarazm went to stay with the tribe
of the kudharkin, 38 the lieutenant of the king of the Turks. He stayed with a host from this
tribe for a certain time buying sheep. The Turk had a son, a beardless youth. The
Khwarazmian kept on making up to him and attempting to seduce him, so that finally the
young man agreed to do what he wanted. The Turk arrived and found them at it. He reported
the matter to the kudharkin and said to him:
‘Gather together the Turks!’
So the Turks assembled.
The kudharkin said:
‘Do you want a just or an unjust judgement?’
‘Just,’ said the Turk.
‘Bring your son!’ he told him.
He brought his son and the kudharkin said:
‘The merchant and your son must be put to death together.’
The Turk was very upset and said:
‘I will not give up my son!’
‘Then let the merchant ransom himself,’ said the kudharkin.
He did this and made over to the Turk a number of sheep in compensation for what he had
done to his son. He gave the kudharkin 400 sheep for having changed the sentence. Then he
left the land of the Turks.
A fragile conversion
The first of their kings and chiefs that we met was Inal the Younger. He had converted to
Islam. It was said to him:
‘If you become Muslim, you will no longer be our leader.’
So he renounced Islam. When we came to the place where he was, he said to us:
‘I will not let you pass, because this is something we have never heard of and which we
thought would never happen.’
We talked to him pleasantly, until we had persuaded him to accept a caftan from Jurjan
worth ten dirhams, a piece of cloth [ pay-baf ], round loaves of bread, a handful of raisins and
a hundred walnuts. After we had given him these things, he prostrated himself before us, for
that is their custom. When a man wants to honour another, he prostrates himself before him,
and says:
‘If my tents were not so far off your route, I would bring you sheep and grain.’
He left us then and we set out.
On the following day, we met a Turk. He was an ugly man, wretched looking, small and
stunted in appearance, really ignoble. We had just been caught by a violent cloudburst.
‘Stop!’ he cried.
The whole caravan halted. It was made up of some 3,000 horses and 5,000 men. Then he
said:
‘Not one of you is going to get by.’
We halted, obeying his order, and said to him:
‘But we are friends of the kudharkinV
He began to laugh and said:
‘What is this kudharkin ? I shit on the khudharkin’s beard.’
Then he laughed and said: ‘PekendV, which means ‘bread’ in the language of Khwarazm. I
gave him some loaves of bread and he took them and said:
‘Pass. I have taken pity on you.’
Treatment of the sick
When a man falls ill and he has male and female slaves, they serve him and no member of
the family goes near him. They set up a small tent for him at some distance from their
dwellings and he stays there until he dies or recovers. In the case of a poor man or a slave,
they cast him into the desert and ride off.
Horse sacrifices
If a man dies, they dig a great trench for him the shape of a house and they go to him, and
dress him in his tunic, with his belt and his bow [ ], 39 then they place a wooden cup in his
hand filled with nabidh 40 and leave a wooden container of it in front of him. Then they bring
everything that he possessed and put it in this house with him and set him in a sitting
position. They put a roof on the house and above it a construction like a dome made of clay.
Next, they bring his horses, no matter how numerous they may be, even a hundred or two
hundred head, and kill them, down to the very last one, and eat their flesh. But they hang the
head, hooves, hide and tail over wooden stakes, and say: ‘These are the horses he will ride to
Paradise.’ If he has killed a man and been a warrior of note, they make as many wooden
statues as he killed men and set them up on his tomb, saying: ‘These are his attendants and
they will serve him in Paradise.’ Sometimes, they delay a day or two over the sacrifice of the
horses. Then an old man, one of their elders, urges them on, saying:
‘I have seen so-and-so - that is, the dead man - in a dream and he said to me: “You see, my
companions have all gone ahead of me and the soles of my feet are split from my efforts to
follow them, but I cannot catch up with them and I have remained alone.’”
Then they go to his horses, kill them and prop their remains around his tomb. After a day
or two, the old man comes to them and says:
‘I have seen so-and-so in a dream and he said to me: “Tell my family and my companions
that I have caught up with those who went ahead of me and I have recovered from my great
weariness.’”
Facial hair
All Turks pluck their beards, but not their moustaches. I once saw a very aged man, who had
pulled out his beard, but left a tuft under his chin. He was wearing a kind of goatskin cloak,
so that from a distance he looked exactly like a billy goat.
Yabghu and kudharkin
The king of the Ghuzz Turks is called yabghu, which is the title of the ruler. Each of those
who has authority in this tribe is called thus, and his second-in-command is the kudharkin, and
similarly all those who are second-in-command to a leader are known as kudharkin.
Atrak, son of Qataghan, and his wife
After leaving the region of these Turks, we stopped at the camp of the commander of their
troops, who is called Atrak, the son of Qataghan. He had round Turkish tents pitched and
settled us in them. He had followers, servants and numerous yurts. 41 He had sheep brought
for us and also horses. The sheep were to slaughter, the horses to ride. He invited a large
number of his family and cousins and slaughtered many sheep for them. We had sent him a
present of clothing, raisins, walnuts, pepper and millet.
I saw his wife, who had been a wife of his father. She took meat, yoghurt and some of the
things we had brought as presents, went away from the tents into the desert, dug a hole and
buried what she had with her, and she spoke certain words. I asked the interpreter what she
was saying. He answered:
‘She says: “It is a gift for Qataghan, the father of Atrak, which the Arabs offer him.’”
An invitation to convert and gifts from Baghdad
When night fell, I went with the interpreter to visit Atrak, who was sitting in his tent. We
had with us Nadhir al-Harami’s letter, in which he urged Atrak to embrace Islam. He sent him
50 dinars, among which there were many musayyabi dinars, three mithqdls of musk, some
pieces of well-tanned leather, two pieces of cloth from Merv, from which we cut out two
tunics for him, leather slippers, a brocade robe and five silk garments. We gave him his
present and a veil and a ring for his wife. I then read him the letter. He said through the
interpreter:
‘I do not want to say anything to you until your return. I will write to the caliph to tell him
what I have decided to do.’
Clothes worn until they fall to pieces
Then, he stripped off the brocade garment he was wearing, in order to put on the robe of
honour we have just mentioned. I saw the tunic he was wearing under the brocade. It was so
filthy that it was in rags, for it is their custom never to take off a piece of clothing they are
wearing until it falls to pieces. 42 He had plucked out all his beard and moustaches and he
looked like a eunuch.
A feat of horsemanship
I noticed that the Turks spoke of him as their finest horseman and I saw what they meant one
day, when he was accompanying us on horseback. As a goose flew over us, he strung his bow
and spurred his horse to a gallop under the goose, shot and dropped it.
The envoys under suspicion
One day, Atrak sent for the military chiefs who served under him. They were Tarkhan, Inal, 43
and Baghliz. Tarkhan was the most noble and important among them. He limped, was blind
and had a crippled hand.
Atrak said to them:
‘These people are the envoys of the king of the Arabs to my son-in-law Almish ibn Shilki,
and it did not seem advisable to allow them to depart without consulting you.’
Tarkhan said:
‘This is something we have never either seen or heard of. Never in our whole lives, nor in
the lifetimes of our fathers, has an envoy of the caliph come to us. I can only think this is
some trick of the caliph’s and that he has sent these people to the Khazars to tell them to
gather an army against us. The thing to do is to have each of these envoys cut in two, and
take everything they have with them.’
Someone else said:
‘No, let’s just take everything they have with them and leave them naked to return to the
place they came from.’
Another man said:
‘No. The king of the Khazars holds some of our people prisoner. We will send these people
as a ransom in exchange for them.’
They continued to argue among themselves for seven days, during which time we were at
death’s door, until the day they agreed to let us continue on our way and leave.
We gave Tarkhan a robe of honour - a caftan made of cloth from Merv - and two pieces of
cotton cloth, as well as a coat for each of his companions. We gave equivalent gifts to Inal.
We also gave them pepper, millet and round loaves of bread. Then they left us.
Crossing rivers
We rode until we came to the river Yaghindi. Our people got out folding boats made of
camel skin and stretched them out, then they took the saddle frames 44 from the Turkish
camels, because they were round and placed them at the bottom of the boats, so they would
be fully stretched, then they filled them with clothes and baggage, and, when they were full,
a certain number of men, five, six or four - more or less - sat in each boat. They took poles
made from a wood called khadank and used them as oars. They continued to row like this,
while the water carried them and they spun around, until we had crossed. As to the horses
and the camels, they called them with loud cries and they swam across the river. It was
essential to get one of the companies of men-at-arms over the river first, before any of the
caravan crossed, so that they could form an advance guard to protect the others, in case the
Bashghirds fell on our people while they were crossing. We crossed the Yaghindi in the way
we have just described, then a river called Jam, also by means of these boats. Then we
crossed the Jakhsh, the Udhil, the ‘Ardin, the Warsh, the AkhtI and the Wabna, which are all
great rivers. 45
The Bajanak
At last we reached the Bajanak (Pecenegs). They were encamped at the edge of a body of
water resembling a sea, for it was not flowing. Their skins were dark brown, their chins
shaved and they were poor compared to the Ghuzz. In fact, among the Ghuzz, I have seen
people who possess 10,000 horses and 100,000 head of sheep. The sheep mostly graze on
what lies under the snow, which they scrape aside with their hooves in order to get to the
grass. When they cannot find any, they nibble snow and become very fat. When summer
comes, they eat grass and grow thin. We stayed one day with the Bajanak.
More rivers
We set out again and stopped at the river Jayikh which was the largest we had seen, the most
impressive and the swiftest. I saw a leather boat overturned in midstream and those who
were in it drowned. Many of our men were carried away and a certain number of horses and
camels were drowned. It cost us great efforts to get across that river. Then we marched for
several days and crossed the Jakha, after which we crossed the Arkhaz, then the Bajagh, then
the Samur, then the Kinal, then the river Sukh, and finally the river Kunjulu. 46 Then we
halted in the lands of a Turkic people, the Bashghirds. 47
The Bashghirds eat lice and fleas
We took every possible precaution against them, for they are the worst of the Turks, the
dirtiest and the readiest to kill. When one of them meets another, he cuts off his head and
carries it off with him, leaving the body. They shave their beards and eat lice. A man will
pursue one through the seams of his coat and crack it with his teeth. We had with us a man of
this people who had converted to Islam and who served us. One day, I saw him take a flea
from his clothes and, after having crushed it with his fingernail, he devoured it and on
noticing me, said: ‘Delicious!’
The Bashghirds carry a wooden phallus
Each of them carves a piece of wood shaped like a phallus and attaches it about his person.
When he wants to start out on a journey, or when he meets an enemy, he kisses it and bows
before it, and says:
‘Lord, do this or that for me.’
I said to the interpreter:
‘Ask one of them to explain their behaviour and why they consider such a thing to be their
Lord.’
He answered:
‘Because I came from such a thing and cannot imagine anything else to be my Creator.’
The twelve lords
Some of them claim that there are twelve lords, a Lord of Winter and a Lord of Summer, a
Lord of Rain and a Lord of Wind, a Lord of Trees and a Lord of Men, a Lord of Horses and a
Lord of Water, a Lord of Night and a Lord of Day, a Lord of Death and a Lord of the Earth.
The Lord who is in the sky is the most powerful of them, but he is in concord with the others,
so that each approves what his companion does. God is infinitely above the beliefs of these
lost souls! 48
Snake and crane worship
We saw a clan that worships snakes and another that worships fish and another that worships
cranes. These told me that one day, while they were fighting some of their enemies and were
on the point of being defeated, the cranes began to give their call behind their opponents.
Their enemy was frightened and turned and fled. This is why they worship cranes. They say:
‘They are our Lord, because they scattered our enemies.’
And they worship them for that reason.
More rivers
We left the land of these people and crossed the river Jirimshan, then the river Uran, then
the river Uram, then the river Baynakh, then the river Watigh, then the river NIyasnah, then
the river Jawshlr. 49 From one of the rivers we have mentioned to the next, there is a distance
of two, three or four days, or a little more or a little less.
The king of the Saqaliba
When we were a day and a night’s journey from the king of the Saqaliba, for it was to him
that we were heading, he sent out to welcome us the four kings who were under his
authority, accompanied by his brothers and his sons. They greeted us, bringing with them
bread, meat and millet, and they rode with us. When we were two farsakhs away from the
king, he came out to meet us in person. When he saw us, he dismounted and fell down with
his face to the ground to give thanks to God, the All High, the Almighty. In his sleeve, he had
dirhams which he scattered over us. He had tents pitched for us and we settled down in them.
The reading of the caliph’s letter
We arrived on Sunday, 12 Muharram 310/12 May 922. The journey from Jurjanlya to the
king’s country took seventy days. We remained in the tents that had been set up for us for
the Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, waiting until he had gathered the kings,
military leaders and people of the country to listen to the reading of the letter. On Thursday,
when they had all arrived, we unfurled the two banners that we had with us, saddled the
horse with the saddle which had been sent to the king as a present and dressed the king in
black 50 robes and a turban. Then I got out the caliph’s letter and said:
‘It is not permitted to remain seated during the reading of the letter.’
Then the king rose and the principal men of his kingdom who were present did likewise.
The king was a very fat man with a large belly. I started to read the first part of the letter.
When I reached the formula:
‘Peace be upon you, for in addressing myself to you I praise God, beside whom there is no
god,’ I said:
‘Return the greeting to the Commander of the Faithful.’
He returned the greeting as did all the others, without exception. Then the interpreter
continued to translate the letter for us, word for word, and when we had finished reading,
they pronounced Allahu akbar! so loudly the earth shook.
Rich gifts
Next, I read the letter from the vizier Hamid ibn al-‘Abbas 51 and the king listened to it
standing. Then, I invited him to sit down and he sat during the reading of the letter of Nadhir
al-Haraml. When I had finished reading, members of the king’s entourage scattered a large
number of dirhams over him . 52 Then I got out the presents, which consisted of scent, cloth
and pearls intended for him and his wife, and I presented them, one after another, until we
had finished the whole business. Then, I gave his wife a robe of honour before the whole
company. She was sitting beside him, for that is their custom. When I had given her this robe
of honour, her women scattered dirhams over her and then we went back to our tents.
A formal dinner
An hour passed, and then the king sent for us and we went to him. He was in his tent with
the kings on his right. He invited us to sit down on his left. His children were sitting in front
of him. He sat on a throne covered with brocade from Byzantium. He told them to bring him
a table. It had nothing on it but roast meat. He began by taking a knife and cutting a piece of
meat which he ate, then a second and a third. Then he cut a piece which he gave to Sawsan,
the envoy. When he had taken it, a small table was brought and set down in front of him.
That is their custom; no one touches a dish until the king has served him. As soon as he
receives his share, a table is brought.
Next, he served me with a portion and I was brought a table. [Then he cut off a piece and
served the king seated on his right, who was then brought a table. Then he served the second
king, who was in turn brought a table .] 53 Then he served the fourth king and he was brought
a table, then he served his children, to whom more tables were brought. Each of us ate at his
own table and no one took anything from someone else’s table. When each guest had finished
eating, he carried away what was left on his table.
When we had eaten, he had brought a kind of mead that they call suju, which had only
been fermented one day and one night. He drank down a cup . 54 Then he rose and said:
‘This bears witness to my joy concerning the Commander of the Faithful - may God
prolong his existence!’
The four kings rose with him, as did his children, and we too got to our feet. When he had
done this three times, we left him.
The wording of the khutba
Before I arrived, the khutba was read for the king from his pulpit in these words:
‘O God! Preserve King Yiltawar, king of the Bulghars.’
I said to him:
‘The king is God and from the pulpit none but He, the All-high and the All-powerful, should
be called king. Your master, the Commander of the Faithful, is satisfied that the following
should be pronounced from the pulpits in both East and West:
“‘My God, preserve your slave and caliph, Ja’far, al-Imam al-Muqtadir-billah, the
Commander of the Faithful.”
‘And the same was done by his forefathers, the caliphs who reigned before him. For the
Prophet - may God’s prayers and peace be upon him - said:
“‘Do not address praises to me, as the Christians do to Jesus, son of Mary, for I am only the
servant of God and His messenger.’”
The king adopts a Muslim name
Then the king said to me:
‘In what form may the khutba be read for me, then?’
‘Using your name and that of your father,’ I answered.
‘But,’ he said, ‘my father was an unbeliever and I do not want his name mentioned from
the pulpit, and as for myself, I do not want my name mentioned either, because he who gave
it to me was an unbeliever. But what is the name of my master, the Commander of the
Faithful?’
‘Ja‘far,’ I told him.
‘Am I allowed to call myself by his name?’
‘Yes,’ I said.
‘Then I shall take the name of Ja‘far and my father that of ‘Abd Allah. Give the man who
pronounces the khutba his orders.’
And that is what I did. He pronounced the khutba for him, saying:
‘O God, preserve in good health your slave Ja‘far, son of ‘Abd Allah, amir of the Bulghars,
client of the Commander of the Faithful.’
The king demands his money
Three days after the reading of the letter and distribution of presents, the king sent for me.
He had heard the story of the 4,000 dinars and the trick that the Christian had played to defer
payment. On my entering, he invited me to sit down. I did so, and he threw me the letter of
the Commander of the Faithful.
‘Who brought this letter?’ he asked.
‘I did,’ I replied.
Then he threw me the vizier’s letter and said:
‘And this one, too?’
‘Yes,’ I said.
‘And what has happened to the money mentioned in these two letters?’
‘It was impossible to collect it,’ I answered. ‘There was not enough time and for fear of
missing the season for reaching your country, we left it to be brought later.’
‘You all came together and my master [the caliph] paid all your expenses, and the only
reason was so that you could bring me this money to have a fortress built to protect me from
the Jews, who have tried to reduce me to slavery. As regards the presents, my ghuldm could
perfectly well have brought them.’
‘That is quite true,’ I said, ‘but we did what we could.’
Then the king said to the interpreter:
‘Tell him that I do not recognize these people. I only recognize you [i.e. Ibn Fadlan], for
these other people are not Arabs. If the caliph 55 - may God aid him! - had thought that they
could have obtained the same results as you could, he would not have sent you to protect my
interests, read my letter and listen to my answer. I shall not demand one single dirham from
anyone else but you. Hand over the money; it will be better for you.’
I left him and went out in consternation and much saddened. He was a good-looking man,
stout and full bodied, who inspired respect. He was like a great barrel speaking.
I left his presence, gathered together my companions and told them what had passed
between the king and myself.
‘I warned you about this,’ I told them.
A disagreement on the call to prayer
The king’s muezzin repeated the phrases of the iqdma twice when he gave the call to
prayer. 56 I said to him:
‘In his dominions your master, the Commander of the Faithful, only has them said once.’
Then the king told the muezzin:
‘Accept what he tells you and don’t contradict him!’
For several days, the muezzin observed the rule. Meanwhile, the king asked me questions
about the money and argued with me about it, but I made him despair of winning the debate
by providing most excellent arguments. When he realized that he was not going to get the
better of me, he ordered the muezzin to repeat the phrases of the iqdma twice. The muezzin
obeyed, for the king wanted to use this as a way of starting up the discussion again. When I
heard the repetition of the phrases, I ordered the muezzin to stop doing it and shouted at
him.
The king heard of this and summoned me to appear before him with my companions. When
we had all assembled, he said to the interpreter:
‘Ask him’ - meaning me - ‘What would you say of two muezzins, one of whom repeated
the formulae of the iqdma only once, the other twice, if afterwards each performed the
prayer with his congregation? Would the prayers be licit or not?’
I replied: ‘The prayers would be licit.’
He continued: ‘Would there be divergent opinions, or would the agreement be unanimous?’
‘Unanimous,’ I answered.
Then he said to the interpreter:
‘What would you say of a man who gave to others money intended for poor people, people
who were suffering a blockade and reduced to servitude, and then was cheated out of that
money?’
‘It is not permitted,’ I said, ‘and such people would be evil-doers.’
‘Unanimously agreed, or with differences of opinion?’
‘Unanimously,’ I answered.
Then he said to the interpreter:
‘Say to him: Do you think that if the caliph - may God prolong his days! - sent an army
against me, he could prevail over me?’
‘No,’ I said.
‘Or over the amir of Khurasan?’ he continued.
‘No.’
‘Is that not because of the great distance that separates us and the number of infidel tribes
between his lands and mine?’
‘Clearly!’ I said.
Then he said to the interpreter:
‘Tell him this: By God, although I live in a remote place, as you see, I still fear my Master,
the Commander of the Faithful. I fear that he will learn something about me that will
displease him, that he will call down God’s wrath upon me and destroy my country without
even leaving his kingdom, despite the great distance between us. But you - you eat his bread,
you wear his clothes, you see him every hour of the day, and yet you have betrayed him on
the mission upon which he sent you to me, to a weak people! And you have betrayed the
Muslims! I shall accept no admonishments from you in matters of religion until someone
comes to me who speaks with a sincere tongue. When such a man comes to me, I will accept
what he says.’
We were at a loss for words. There was nothing we could answer, so we left his presence.
Even after this conversation, he continued to favour and honour me, although he kept my
companions at a distance. He called me Abu Bakr the Truthful. 57
Northern lights
In his country I saw uncounted marvels. Thus, the first night that we spent in this land,
before the light of the sun faded, [a full hour before sunset,] I saw the horizon turn a brilliant
shade of red and in the upper air there was great noise and tumult. I raised my head and saw
a red mist like fire close to me. The tumult and noise issued from it and in the cloud were the
shapes of men and horses. These spectral men held lances and swords. I could see them
clearly and distinguish them. Then suddenly another bank of mist appeared, just like the first,
in which I saw men, horses and arms; it advanced to charge the first, as one cavalry
detachment falls upon another. Frightened, we began to pray and beseech God most humbly,
while the locals laughed at us and were astonished at our behaviour. We watched the two
armies charging. They clashed for a moment and then parted, and so it continued for an hour
after nightfall. Then they vanished.
We questioned the king on this subject. He claimed that his ancestors said:
‘They are the believing and the unbelieving Jinn. They fight every evening and have not
failed to do so every night since they were first created.’ 58
Prayer times during the white nights
One day I went into my tent to talk for a while with a tailor belonging to the king, who was
from Baghdad and had come to this region by chance. We talked for the amount of time it
would take to read less than half of a seventh part of the Qur’an, 59 while we waited for the
call to evening prayer. Suddenly we heard it and went out of the tent. Day was breaking. I
asked the muezzin:
‘To which prayer have you called us?’
‘The dawn prayer,’ he said.
‘And the evening prayer?’
‘We say it with the sunset prayer.’
‘And during the night?’
‘The night is as you see. They have been even shorter than now, for already they are
beginning to lengthen.’
And he said that a month earlier, he had not slept at night, for fear of missing the dawn
prayer. For if a pot is put on the fire at sunset, there is no time for the water to boil before
the dawn prayer.
I observed that in their lands the days are very long and remain so for a certain part of the
year and the nights are short. Then the nights lengthen and the days shorten. On the second
night of our stay, I sat outside the tent and watched the sky. I saw only a few stars. I think
there were about fifteen [scattered across the sky. The red glow that one sees before the
evening prayer never fades], 60 and the night was not dark - a man can recognize another
from a bowshot’s distance. I saw that the moon did not reach the middle of the sky, but
lingered above the horizon for a while. Then dawn broke and the moon vanished.
The king told me that beyond his country, three months’ march away, there is a people
called the Wisu 61 (Ves) among whom the night lasts less than an hour.
I saw the landscape dyed red at sunrise, everything - earth, mountains, all that one sees
when the sun rises is like a great cloud and the red glow stays thus until the sun has reached
its zenith. The locals told me that when winter comes, the nights go back to being the length
of the [summer] days and the days become as short as the [summer] 62 nights. Thus, if one of
us were to set out at dawn for the place they call Itil, 63 which is only one farsakh away, when
he arrived, night would already have fallen and all the stars have risen and covered the sky.
We did not leave the country until the nights had become long and the days short.
Howling of dogs a good omen
I noticed that the people of that land consider the howling of dogs as a great blessing and
they rejoice on hearing it, saying: ‘A year of plenty, blessings and peace!’
Snakes
I observed that snakes 64 are very numerous in that land, so that there may be more than ten
of them twisted about a single branch of a tree. The people do not kill them and the snakes
do them no harm. In one place, I saw a tree more than a hundred cubits high that had fallen.
Its trunk was enormous. I stopped to look at it, when suddenly it moved. Frightened, I
examined the tree more carefully. I noticed that there was a snake on it, almost as thick and
large as the tree itself. When it saw me, it dropped off and slithered away among the trees.
In a panic, I hastened back and told the king and his council what I had seen, but they paid
no attention. The king said to me:
‘Don’t be frightened, they won’t hurt you.’
Wild berries, green apples and hazelnuts
One day when we were with the king we made camp and I went in among the trees with my
companions, Tikin, Sawsan and Bars, and one of the king’s followers, who showed us the
stem of a plant. It was small and green, like a spindle in thickness, but longer and at the base,
a large leaf spread out on the ground which was carpeted with new shoots which bore a
berry. 65 If you tasted them you would think they were seedless pomegranates. We tasted
them and found them incredibly delicious, and spent our time hunting for them and eating
them.
I also saw that they have apples of a very brilliant green, with a taste more acidic than
wine vinegar. The slave girls eat them and get plump.
I never saw more hazelnut trees than in their country. I saw forests of them, 40 farsakhs in
area.
Tree sap, 66 meat and grain
I also noticed that they had trees that I do not know. They are extremely tall and the trunk is
leafless, while the crowns are like those of a palm tree. They have narrow leaves like palms,
but grouped together. The people of the region go to a place they know where such trees are,
make a cut and with the help of a container collect the sap which is sweeter than honey. If
someone drinks too much of this liquid, he becomes drunk as if with wine, or even more so.
They eat millet and horse meat, although there is also an abundance of wheat and barley.
All those who sow, harvest for themselves. The king has no rights whatsoever over their
crops, but every year they give him a sable skin for each household. When the king orders
them to form a raiding party for an expedition against another country and they bring back
loot, he gets one share, like the rest of the troop. All those who give a wedding feast, or give
a banquet are required to reserve a share for the king, proportionate to the importance of the
occasion. They must also provide a measure of mead and a quantity of spoiled wheat, for
their earth is black and stinking and they have no place to store their food, so they dig pits in
the ground and put the food in them, with the result that within a few days it rots and
becomes disgusting and is no longer of any use.
Cooking with fish oil
They have neither olive oil nor sesame oil; in place of these, they use fish oil, so that
everything they make with it smells bad. They make a kind of porridge with barley that the
young slaves eat, both girls and boys. Sometimes they cook barley with meat. The masters
eat the meat and give the barley to the slave girls, but if the meat is goat’s head, they give
them some of the meat.
Doffing hats
They all wear tall pointed hats. When the king mounts his horse, he rides alone without a
ghuldm or anyone accompanying him. As he goes past in the market, there is no one who
does not rise and doff his hat and put it under his arm. When he has ridden past, the people
put their hats back on. It is the same whenever anyone visits the king, whether great or
small, including his children and his brothers. As soon as they see him, they take off their
hats and put them under their arms, then they make a sign with their heads in his direction
and sit down, then they stand up again until he invites them to sit down. Everyone who sits
down before the king does so by squatting on his heels and does not take his hat out from
under his arm, nor show it until he has gone out.
The king’s tent
They all live in tents, but that of the king is very large, large enough for 1,000 people or
more, and it is spread with Armenian carpets. In the centre is a throne covered with brocade
from Byzantium.
The grandfather raises his grandson
One of their customs is that when a man’s son has a child, it is the grandfather and not the
father who takes the child, saying:
‘I have more right than his father to raise him until he becomes a man.’
Fraternal inheritance
When a man dies, his brother inherits from him, to the exclusion of his sons.
I told the king that this was not allowed and explained to him how inheritance should work
until he understood.
Lightning
I have never seen more lightning than in their country. When it strikes a tent, they do not go
near it again, but leave it as it is, together with anything that is inside it - men, goods or
other things - until time has destroyed them. They say that it is a tent upon which the wrath
of God has fallen.
The punishment for murder
If one man kills another deliberately, they execute him, but if he has killed by accident they
make a box for the killer out of khadank wood, put him inside with three loaves of bread and
a jug of water, and close it with nails. Then they set up three wooden poles, rather like the
supports of a camel’s saddle, and hang the box from them. They say:
‘We place him between the sky and the earth, exposed to the rain and the sun - perhaps
God will have mercy upon him.’
And he remains there until time has caused him to rot and the winds have dispersed his
bones.
The sacrifice of the intelligent
If they see a man whose mind is lively and who knows many things, they say:
‘This man deserves to serve our Lord.’
And they take him and put a rope round his neck and hang him in a tree until he falls to
pieces.
The king’s interpreter told me that a man from Sind had come to this country by chance
and remained for a time in the service of the king. He was skilful and intelligent. A number
of people from that country wanted to set out for reasons of trade. The man from Sind asked
the king for permission to leave with them, but the king forbade him to go. The man insisted
so much that the king gave him permission to go and he set off with them in a boat. The
people saw that he was quick-witted and intelligent, and they discussed it among themselves
and said:
‘This man is fitting for the service of our Lord, so let’s send him to Him.’
As their route took them near a forest, they took him there, placed a rope about his neck
and hung him from the top of a tall tree. Then they left him there and went away.
Taboo against urinating while armed
When they are on the road and one of them has to urinate and does so while carrying his
weapons, they will rob him [of his weapons] 67 and clothes. That is their custom. But if he sets
down his arms to one side and then urinates, they will not attack him.
Mixed bathing
Men and women go down to the river together to wash completely naked, no one concealing
their body from anyone else. Under no circumstances do they fornicate.
The penalty for adultery
If somebody, no matter who he is, commits adultery, they set out four iron stakes, attach the
guilty person by their hands and feet, and cut them in two from the nape of the neck to the
thighs with an axe. They do the same to the woman. Then they hang the pieces of both
bodies from a tree.
Ibn Fadlan fails to impose the veil
I tried ceaselessly to induce the women to veil before men 68 but I did not succeed.
Punishment for theft
They put thieves to death in the same way as adulterers.
Honey
There is much honey in their forests, in beehives, and they know where to find them. They
set out to search for it, but sometimes a band of their enemies falls upon them and kills them.
Furs
There are many merchants among them who go to the lands of the Turks and bring back
sheep, and to a land called Wisu, from which they bring the skins of sable and black foxes.
Converts to Islam
We saw a kin group among them numbering 5,000 members, counting men and women, and
they had all converted to Islam. They were known by the name of al-Baranjar. They had built
themselves a wooden mosque to pray in, but did not know how to say the prayers. So I
taught the whole group how it should be done.
One man called Talut converted to Islam through my agency and I called him ‘Abd Allah.
He said to me:
‘I would like you to call me by your name, Muhammad.’ 69
I did what he asked. I also converted his wife, mother and children and they all took the
name Muhammad! I taught him how to say: ‘Praise be to God!’ and: ‘Say, He is God, the
One.’ His joy at knowing these two verses was greater than if he had been made king of the
Saqaliba.
The market on the Volga
When we caught up with the king, we found him encamped by a body of water called
Khallaja. It consists of three lakes, two large and one small, but there is nothing that can
plumb their depths. Afarsakh separates this place from the great river called Itil that flows
from their country to the land of the Khazars. On this river is the site of a great market 70
which is held frequently and where all kinds of precious merchandise is to be had.
A giant
Tikin told me that in the king’s lands there was a man of extraordinary size. When I arrived
in that country, I asked the king about him.
‘Yes, he was living in our country,’ he told me, ‘but he is dead. He was not one of our
people, nor was he an ordinary man. His story is as follows. One day some merchants set out
in the direction of the Itil River, 71 as they were in the habit of doing. The river was in flood
and had broken its banks. A day had scarcely passed when a group of these merchants came
to me and said:
“‘O king, we have seen swimming on the waters a man of such a kind that if he belonged
to a people dwelling near us there would be no place for us in these lands, but we would
have to emigrate.”
‘I set out on horseback with them and reached the river. I found myself face to face with
the man. I saw that judging by the length of my own forearm, he was twelve cubits tall. He
had a head the size of the biggest cooking pot there ever was, a nose more than a span long,
huge eyes, and fingers each more than a span in length. His appearance frightened me and I
had the same feeling of terror as the others. We began to speak to him, but he did not speak
to us and only stared. I had him taken to my residence and I wrote to the people of Wisu,
who live three months’ distance from us, to ask for information about him. They wrote to
me, informing me that this man was one of the people of Gog and Magog. 2
Gog and Magog
‘They live three full months from us. They are naked, 73 and the sea forms a barrier between
us, for they live on the other shore. They couple together like beasts. God, All-high and All-
powerful, causes a fish to come out of the sea for them each day. One of them comes with a
knife and cuts off a piece sufficient for himself and his family. If he takes more than he
needs, his belly aches and so do the bellies of his family and sometimes he even dies, with all
his family. When they have taken what they need, the fish turns round and dives back into
the sea. They do this every day. Between us and them, there is the sea on one side and they
are enclosed by mountains on the others. The Barrier also separates them from the gate by
which they leave. When God, All-high and All-powerful, wants to unleash them on civilized
lands, He causes the Barrier to open and the level of the sea to drop and the fish to vanish.’
I questioned the king further about this man and he told me:
‘He stayed with me for a time, but no child could look at him without dropping dead and
no pregnant women without miscarrying. If he took hold of a man, his hands squeezed him
until he killed him. When I realized that, I had him hung from a high tree until he died. If
you want to see his bones and his head, I will go along with you and show them to you.’
‘I would like very much to see them,’ I answered.
He rode with me into a great forest filled with immense trees and shoved 74 me towards a
tree under which had fallen his bones and head. I saw his head. It was like a great beehive.
His ribs were like the stalk of a date cluster and the bones of his legs and arms were
enormous too. I was astonished at the sight. Then I went away.
Local politics
The king set off from the stretch of water called Khallaja to a river called Jawshlr, where he
stayed for two months. Then he wanted to leave and sent a messenger to a people called
Suwaz, commanding them to march with him, but they refused and divided into two groups,
one headed by his son-in-law. His name was WIragh, 75 and he ruled over them. The king sent
them the following message, saying:
‘God, All-mighty and All-powerful, has granted me the blessing of Islam and the rule of the
Commander of the Faithful. I am his slave. This people 76 has recognized my authority, and if
someone opposes me, I shall meet him with the sword.’
The other group was headed by a king of a tribe, named king Askal. He obeyed the ruler,
but had not entered the faith of Islam.
When the king sent them this message, they were afraid of what he might do and all set
out with him for the river Jawshlr, which is a narrow watercourse, some five cubits across.
The water only comes up to the navel, but in other places it reaches the collarbone.
Generally, however, it is more than a man’s height. All around, there are many khadank and
other trees. 77
Rhinoceroses
Near this river there is a great stretch of desert land where it is said that animals are found,
smaller than a camel in size, but broader than a bull. Their heads are like those of camels and
their tails are those of the bull. Their bodies are the bodies of mules and their hooves are
those of bulls. In the centre of their heads, they have a thick round horn. This horn grows
thinner and thinner until it becomes like the point of a lance. Some of them are between
three and five cubits in length, some more, some less. This creature grazes on the leaves of
certain trees that are very green. When it sees a man on horseback, it charges him. Even if
the horseman has an excellent mount, he still finds it hard to get away safely. If the beast
catches him, it lifts him from the back of the horse with its horn, tosses him in the air, and
then catches him on its horn and continues to do this until it has killed him. But under no
circumstances does it harm the horse. They hunt it across the countryside and through the
forests until they kill it. They do this by climbing the tall trees among which it lives. They
gather together a certain number of archers shooting poisoned arrows and when the beast is
in their midst, they shoot at it until they wound and kill it. In the king’s possession I saw
three great plates of a material resembling Yemeni onyx, and he told me that they were
made with the base of the horn of this animal. Some of the people of the country told me that
this creature was a rhinoceros. 78
The sickliness of the people
I have never seen any man among them with a ruddy complexion. Most of them are ill and
many of them often die of colic, so that even babies at the breast suffer from this complaint.
Muslim burial rites
If a Muslim dies there among them and if a woman from Khwarazm is present, then they
wash the body after the Muslim fashion, load it on to a wagon and walk before it with a
banner until they come to the place where they bury him. When they arrive, they take him
from the wagon and lay him on the ground. Then a line is traced round him and they move
him away and dig his grave within the line, hollowing out a lateral niche for the body. Then
they bury him. They do the same with their own dead.
Pagan burial rites
The women do not weep for the dead, but the men weep over him on the day of death. They
stand at the door of his tent and sob, making the most hideous and savage noise. This is how
it is done by free men. When their lamentations are over, the slaves come with plaited
leather thongs and weep continually as they strike their sides and any uncovered parts of
their bodies with the straps, until their bodies are marked as if by the blows of a whip. They
must set up a banner before the door of the tent. They bring the dead man’s weapons and set
them around his tomb. They continue these lamentations for two years.
When the two years are over, they lower the banner and cut their hair, and the close
relatives of the dead man offer a feast to mark the end of mourning. If the dead man had a
wife, she can then remarry. This is the custom among the great men of that land. The
common people only perform a part of these ceremonies for their dead.
Taxes and custom duties
The king of the Saqaliba is required to pay a tax to the king of the Khazars. He gives a sable
skin for each household in his kingdom. When a boat arrives in the land of the Saqaliba from
Khazar territory, the king rides out and checks what is in each boat and levies a tithe on
everything. When it is the Rus or people of other races, who come with slaves, the king has
the right to take for himself one head in ten.
Marriage of a Jewish prince and a Muslim princess
The son of the king of the Saqaliba is a hostage to the king of the Khazars. This last, having
learned that the king of the Saqaliba had a beautiful daughter, asked for her in marriage. But
the king of the Saqaliba made excuses and refused. The king of the Khazars sent men and had
her carried off by force. Now, he was a Jew and she was a Muslim. She died there with him
and he demanded another daughter in marriage. As soon as this request reached the king of
the Saqaliba, he hastened to marry his daughter to king Askal, who was subordinate to him,
for fear that the king of the Khazars should carry her off by force as he had her sister.
A fortress for the Saqaliba
The king of the Saqaliba, fearing the king of the Khazars, wrote to the caliph and asked him
to build him a fortress.
One day I questioned him, saying:
‘Your kingdom is vast, you have great wealth, the taxes you raise are considerable, so why
did you ask the caliph to build you a castle from his own, admittedly unlimited, funds?’
‘I thought,’ he answered, ‘that the empire of Islam is prosperous and that its revenues come
from licit sources. For this reason, I made my request. If I had wanted to build a fortress with
my own money, silver or gold, it would not have been impossible for me. But I wanted to
have the blessing which is attached to money coming from the Commander of the Faithful,
and so I asked him for it.’
The beauty of the Rus
I saw the Rus, who had come for trade and had camped by the river Itil. I have never seen
bodies more perfect than theirs. They were like palm trees. They are fair and ruddy. They
wear neither coats [ qurtaq ] nor caftans, but a garment which covers one side of the body and
leaves one hand free. Each of them carries an axe, a sword and a knife and is never parted
from any of the arms we have mentioned. Their swords are broad bladed and grooved like
the Frankish ones. From the tips of his toes to his neck, each man is tattooed in dark green 80
with designs, and so forth.
Brooches, torques and beads
All their women wear on their bosoms a circular brooch 81 made of iron, silver, copper or
gold, depending on their husband’s wealth and social position. Each brooch has a ring in
which is a knife, also attached to the bosom. Round their necks, they wear torques of gold
and silver, for every man, as soon as he accumulates 10,000 dirhams, has a torque made for
his wife. When he has 20,000, he has two torques made and so on. Every time he increases
his fortune by 10,000, he adds another torque to those his wife already possesses, so that one
woman may have many torques round her neck.
The most desirable ornaments they have are green ceramic beads they keep in their
boats. 82 They will pay dearly for them, one dirham for a single bead. They thread them into
necklaces for their wives.
The uncleanliness of the Rus
They are the filthiest of God’s creatures. They do not clean themselves after urinating or
defecating, nor do they wash after having sex. They do not wash their hands after meals.
They are like wandering asses.
The Rus have sex with their slave girls in public
When they arrive from their land, they anchor their boat on the Itil, which is a great river,
and they build large wooden houses on the banks. Ten or twenty people, more or less, live
together in one of these houses. Each man has a raised platform 83 on which he sits. With
them, there are beautiful slave girls, for sale to the merchants. Each of the men has sex with
his slave, while his companions look on. Sometimes a whole group of them gather together in
this way, in full view of one another. If a merchant enters at this moment to buy a young
slave girl from one of the men and finds him having sex with her, the man does not get up
off her until he has satisfied himself.
Disgusting habits
Every day without fail they wash their faces and their heads with the dirtiest and filthiest
water there could be. A young serving girl comes every morning with breakfast and with it a
great basin of water. She proffers it to her master, who washes his hands and face in it, as
well as his hair. He washes and disentangles his hair, using a comb, there in the basin, then
he blows his nose and spits and does every filthy thing imaginable in the water. When he has
finished, the servant carries the bowl to the man next to him. She goes on passing the basin
round from one to another until she has taken it to all the men in the house in turn. And each
of them blows his nose and spits and washes his face and hair in this basin.
Offerings to the idols
As soon as their boats arrive at this port, each of them disembarks, taking with him bread
and meat, onions, milk and nabidh, and he walks until he comes to a great wooden post stuck
in the ground with a face like that of a man, and around it are little figures. Behind these
images there are long wooden stakes driven into the ground. Each of them prostrates himself
before the great idol, saying to it:
‘Oh my Lord, I have come from a far country and I have with me such and such a number
of young slave girls, and such and such a number of sable skins ...’ and so on, until he has
listed all the trade goods he has brought. [Then he adds:] ‘I have brought you this gift.’ Then
he leaves what he has with him in front of the wooden post [and says:]
‘I would like you to do the favour of sending me a merchant who has large quantities of
dinars and dirhams and who will buy everything that I want and not argue with me over my
price.’
Then he departs.
If he has difficulty selling and his stay becomes long drawn out, he returns with another
present a second and even a third time. If he cannot get what he wants, he brings a present
for each of the little idols and asks them to intercede, saying:
‘These are the wives of our Lord and his daughters and sons.’
Thus he continues to make his request to each idol in turn, begging their intercession and
abasing himself before them. Sometimes the sale is easy and after having sold his goods he
says:
‘My Lord has satisfied my needs and it is fitting that I should reward him for it.’
Then he takes a certain number of sheep or cows and slaughters them, distributing part of
the meat as gifts and carrying off the rest to set before the great idol and the little figures
that surround it. Then he hangs the heads of the sheep or cows on the wooden stakes which
have been driven into the ground. When night falls, the dogs come and eat all this, and the
man who has made the offering says:
‘My Lord is pleased with me and has eaten the gift that I brought him.’
The sick abandoned
If one of them falls ill, [the others pitch a tent for him] in a place distant from them. They
leave him some bread and water, but they neither go near him nor speak to him. [They do
not even come to visit him] during all the days of his illness, particularly if he is a poor man
or a slave. If he recovers and gets well, he comes back to them; if he dies, they burn him. If
he is a slave, they leave him where he is, and the dogs and birds of prey devour him.
The punishment of thieves
If they catch a thief or a brigand, they lead him to a great tree, tie a stout rope round his
neck and hang him [from the tree, and there he remains] until he drops to pieces [from
exposure] to the wind and the rain.
The burial of a great man
They say that when their great men die, they do all kinds of things to them, of which burning
is the least. I wanted to have certain knowledge of this [but did not] until one day I learned
of the death of one of their great men. They placed him in his grave which they covered with
a roof and they left him there for ten days, waiting while they finished cutting and sewing his
garments.
The burial of a poor man
If the dead man was poor, they build him a small boat and place him in it and set it on fire. If
he was wealthy, they gather together his fortune and divide it into three parts, one for his
family, one to have clothes cut out for him and another to have the nabidh prepared that they
will drink on the day that his slave girl kills herself and is burned with her master. For they
drink nabidh unrestrainedly, night and day, so that sometimes one of them dies with his wine
cup in his hand.
Funeral of a noble
When a great man dies, the members of his family say to his slave girls and young slave
boys:
‘Which of you will die with him?’
One of them replies:
‘I will.’
Once they have spoken, it is irreversible and there is no turning back. If they wanted to
change their mind, they would not be allowed to. Usually, it is the slave girls who offer to
die.
When the man whom I mentioned above died, they said to his slave girls:
‘Who will die with him?’
One of them answered:
‘I will.’
Then they appointed two young slave girls to watch over her and follow her everywhere
she went, sometimes even washing her feet with their own hands.
Everyone busies himself about the dead man, cutting out clothes for him and preparing
everything that he will need. Meanwhile, the slave girl spends each day drinking and singing,
happily and joyfully.
When the day came that the man was to be burned and the girl with him, I went to the
river where his boat was anchored. I saw that they had drawn his boat up on to the shore and
that four posts of khadank or other wood had been driven into the ground and round these
posts a framework of wood had been erected. Next, they drew up the boat until it rested on
this wooden construction.
Then they came forward, coming and going, pronouncing [words that I did not understand,
while the man was still in his grave, not yet taken out].
The ‘Angel of Death’
Then they brought a bed and placed it on [the boat and covered it with a mattress] and
cushions of Byzantine silk brocade. Then came [an old woman whom they call] the ‘Angel of
Death’ and she spread the bed with coverings we have just mentioned. She is in charge of
sewing and arranging all these things, and it is she who kills the slave girls. I saw that she
was a witch, thick-bodied and sinister.
When they came to the tomb of the dead man, they removed the earth from on top of the
wood, and then the wood itself and they took out the dead man, wrapped in the garment in
which he died. I saw that he had turned black because of the coldness of the country. They
had put nabicLh in the tomb with him, and fruit and a drum. They took all this out. The dead
man did not smell bad and nothing about him had changed except his colour. They dressed
him in trousers, socks, boots, a tunic and a brocade caftan with gold buttons. On his head,
they placed a brocade cap covered with sable. Then they bore him into the pavilion on the
boat and sat him on the mattress, supported by cushions. Then they brought nabidh, fruit and
basil which they placed near him. Next they carried in bread, meat and onions which they
laid before him.
Sacrificial animals
After that, they brought in a dog, which they cut in two and threw into the boat. Then they
placed his weapons beside him. Next they took two horses and made them run until they
were in lather, before hacking them to pieces with swords and throwing their flesh on to the
boat. Then they brought two cows, which they also cut into pieces and threw them on to the
boat. Finally they brought a cock and a hen, killed them and threw them on to the boat as
well.
The slave girl has sex with those present
Meanwhile, the slave girl who wanted to be killed came and went, entering in turn each of
the pavilions that had been built, and the master of each pavilion had intercourse with her,
saying:
‘Tell your master that I only did this for your love of him.’
The slave girl gazes on Paradise
On Friday, when the time had come for the evening prayer, they led the slave girl towards
something which they had constructed and which looked like the frame of a door. She placed
her feet on the palms of the hands of the men, until she could look over this frame. She said
some words and they let her down. They raised her a second time and she did as she had the
first and then they set her down again. And a third time and she did as she done the other
two. Then they brought her a chicken. She cut off its head and tossed it away. Then they took
the chicken and threw it on to the boat.
I asked the interpreter what she had been doing. He replied:
‘The first time they lifted her up, she said:
[“‘There I see my father and my mother.”]
‘The second time, she said:
“‘There [I see] all my dead relatives [sitting].”
‘And the third time she said:
‘“There [I see my master sitting in] Paradise and [Paradise is green and beautiful.] There
are men with him and [young people, and he is calling me.] Take [me to him.’” They went
off with her] towards the boat. She took off the two bracelets that she was wearing and gave
them both to the old woman who is known as the [Angel of Death - she] who was to kill her.
Then she stripped off her two anklets and gave them [to the two young girls who served her.
They were the daughters] of the woman called the Angel of Death. Then the men lifted her
on to the boat, but did not let her enter [the pavilion].
Next, men came with shields and staves. They handed the girl a cup of nabicLh. She sang a
song over it and drank. The interpreter translated what she was saying and explained that she
was bidding all her female companions farewell. Then they gave her another cup. She took it
and continued singing for a long time, while the old woman encouraged her to drink and
then urged her to enter the pavilion and join her master.
I saw that the girl did not know what she was doing. She wanted to enter the pavilion, but
she put [her head] between it and the boat. Then the old woman seized her head, made her
enter the pavilion and went in with her. The men began to bang on their shields with staves,
to drown her cries, so that the other slave girls [would not be frightened] and try to avoid
dying with their masters. Next, six men entered the pavilion and [lay with] the girl, one after
another, after which they laid her beside her master. Two seized her feet and two others her
hands. The old woman called the Angel of Death came and put a cord round her neck in such
a way that the two ends went in opposite directions. She gave the ends to two of the men, so
they could pull on them. Then she herself approached the girl holding in her hand a dagger
with a broad blade and [plunged it again and again between the girl’s ribs], 84 while the two
men strangled her with the cord until she was dead.
The burning of the boat
Next, [the closest male relative of the dead man] came forward and [took a piece of wood]
which he lit at a fire. He then walked backwards towards the boat, his face turned [towards
the people] who were there, one hand holding the piece of flaming wood, the other covering
his anus, for he was naked. Thus he set fire to the wood that had been set ready under the
boat, [after they had placed the slave girl beside her master.] Then people came with wood
and logs to burn, each holding a piece of a wood alight at one end, which they threw on to
the wood. The fire enveloped the wood, [then the boat, then the tent,] the man, the girl and
all that there was on the boat. [A violent and frightening] wind began [to blow, the flames
grew in strength] and the heat of the fire intensified.
Why the Rus burn their dead
[One of the Rus was standing beside me] and I heard him speak to my interpreter. I asked the
latter [what he had said.] He replied:
‘You Arabs are fools!’
[‘Why is that?’ I asked him.]
He said:
‘Because you put the men you love most, [and the most noble among you,] into the earth,
and the earth and the worms and insects eat them. But we burn them [in the fire] in an
instant, so that at once and without delay they enter Paradise.’
Then he began to laugh in a very excessive way. I asked him why he was laughing and he
said:
‘His Lord, for love of him, has sent a wind that [will bear] him hence within the hour.’
And indeed, not an hour had passed before ship, wood, girl and master were no more than
ashes and dust.
Raising the grave mound
Next, at the place where this boat had been drawn out of the river, they build something like
a round hill and in the middle they set up a great post of khadank wood, inscribed with the
name of the man and that of the king of the Rus. Then they departed.
The king of the Rus
One of the customs of the king of the Rus is to have 400 men in his palace, who are the
bravest of his companions, men upon whom he can count. These are the men who die when
he dies and allow themselves to be killed for him. Each of them has a slave girl who serves
him, washes his head and prepares everything that he eats or drinks, and then there is
another slave girl with whom he sleeps. These 400 men sit below the king’s throne, which is
immense and encrusted with the finest gems. Forty slave girls destined for his bed sit by him
on the throne. Sometimes he has sex with one of them in front of the companions whom we
have just mentioned, without coming down from his throne. When he wants to perform his
natural functions, he does so in a basin. If he wants to ride, his horse is led right up to the
throne and he mounts. If he wants to dismount, he has the horse move forward so that he can
get down directly on to the throne. He has a lieutenant who commands his troops, fights his
enemies and represents him in dealings with his subjects.
The king of the Khazars
The king of the Khazars, whose title is khaqan, only appears in public [once every four
months]. He is called the Great Khaqan, whereas his lieutenant is known as khaqdn beg . 85 It is
he who leads the armies, directs the affairs of the kingdom, appears in public and receives
the allegiance of neighbouring kings. [Every 86 day, he enters the presence of the Great
Khaqan with a humble mien and words indicating submission and modesty. He only enters
the presence barefoot, holding a piece of fire-wood in his hand. Once he has greeted the
Great Khaqan, he ignites this piece of wood before him. When it has burned away, he sits
beside the king on his throne, to the right of him. 87 He has as his second in command a man
called kundur khaqan, who has in his turn a lieutenant known as jawshighir. 88
It is the custom of the Great King never to give public audience and never to speak to the
people. No one, except for those whom we have mentioned, has access to him. It is up to his
lieutenant, the khaqdn beg, to nominate officers for all positions of authority, to inflict
punishments and to take charge of the government.
The hidden tombs of the Khazar kings
When the Great King dies, it is customary to build him a house composed of twenty chambers
and in each chamber to hollow out a tomb for him. They break up stones until they become
like powdered antimony. They spread a layer of this powder and then throw quicklime on
top of the body. Beneath this house there is a river, a great river that flows rapidly, which
they divert over the tomb.
They say: ‘This is so that no devil, or man, or maggot, or reptile can reach it.’
Once the king has been buried, they cut off the heads of those who buried him, so that no
one knows in which of the chambers he lies. They call his tomb ‘Paradise’ and they say:
‘He has entered Paradise.’
All the chambers are decorated with silk brocade woven with gold.
The harem of the king of the Khazars
It is the custom for the king of the Khazars 89 to have twenty-five wives, each of whom is the
daughter of the king of a neighbouring country. He is given them freely or he takes them by
force. He also has slave girls as his concubines for his bed, sixty in number, every one of
them extremely beautiful. All these women, whether free or slave, are kept in an isolated
castle, where each of them has her own alcove roofed with teak, and each alcove is
surrounded by a pavilion. Each of them has with her a eunuch who protects her from all eyes.
When the king wishes to sleep with one of them, he sends a messenger to the eunuch who
guards her and he arrives with her quicker than the blink of an eye to put her in his bed, and
then he remains standing at the door of the king’s alcove. When the king has finished with
her, the eunuch takes her by the hand and leads her back, without leaving her for a single
moment.
When this Great King goes riding, all the troops set out with him as an escort, keeping the
distance of a mile between him and them. None of his subjects sees him without prostrating
themselves face to the ground, and they only lift their heads again after he has passed by.
The length of the reigns of their kings is forty years. If one of them oversteps this time
even by a single day, his subjects and courtiers kill him, saying:
‘His reason has diminished and his opinions are confused.’
The fate of cowards
If he sends out a detachment of his forces on an expedition, never under any circumstances or
for any reason will they turn their backs on him. If they are routed, those who flee in the
king’s direction are killed. If his lieutenant or any of his military chiefs are put to flight, the
king has them brought into his presence with their wives and children, and their wives and
children are given away to others before their very eyes. The same is done with their horses,
their possessions, their arms and their houses. Sometimes they are cut in two and sometimes
crucified. Sometimes, the king has them hung from a tree by their necks. Sometimes, if he
wishes to be kind to them, he employs them as grooms.
The Khazar city on the Itil
The king of the Khazars has a great city on the River Itil, on both banks of the river. The
Muslims live on one bank and the king and his followers on the other. The head of the
Muslim community is one of the king’s officers and is known as khaz, 90 and he is a Muslim.
All legal decisions concerning Muslims living in the land of the Khazars, or visiting the
country on business are referred to this Muslim officer. He is the only person with the
authority to examine their affairs or judge their quarrels.
Revenge for the destruction of a synagogue
The Muslims in this town have a congregational mosque where they perform the Friday
prayers. It has a tall minaret and a certain number of muezzins. When the king of the Khazars
learned in the year 310/922 that the Muslims had destroyed the synagogue that was in Dar
al-Babunaj, 91 he ordered the minaret to be destroyed and the muezzins put to death.
‘If I did not fear that not a synagogue would be left standing throughout the lands of
Islam,’ he said, ‘I would have destroyed the mosque.’
The Khazars and their king are all Jews. The Saqaliba and all the neighbouring peoples are
subject to him and he speaks to them as if they were slaves and they obey him most humbly.
Some go so far as to say that Khazars are Gog and Magog.]
PART II
THE TRAVELS OF ABU HAMID AL-ANDALUSI AL-GHARNATI, 1130-1155
Abu Hamid 1 al-Andalusi says: 7 saw in this sea [the Caspian] a mountain of black clay like tar;
surrounded by the sea. On the summit of the mountain was a long crevice from which water flows,
and with the water come pieces of sulphur the weight of a danaq, more or less. People collect them
and transport them everywhere as a curiosity. ’
In this sea is the Island of Snakes. Abu Hamid says it is near the black mountain just mentioned:
‘It is an island covered with snakes, 2 slithering all over one another. The sea birds come and lay
their eggs in the middle of them, but the snakes don’t harm them at all I saw men carrying strong
canes or staffs in their hands, clearing the snakes from the ground so they could walk through them
and collect the eggs of the sea birds and their chicks. The snakes did no harm to anyone. ’
There is also the Island of the Jinn. Abu Hamid says it is an uninhabited island, with no wild
animals. The people said the Jinn had taken it over and that they could hear their voices. No one
dared approach it.
There is also the Island of Siyah Kuh. Abu Hamid says it is a big island with springs and trees and
vegetation and sweet water. There are wild four-footed animals as well They gather madder there
and export it to other countries. It is near the eastern shore of the sea. One of the tribes of the Ghuzz
(Oguz) Turks has settled there because of a quarrel among the tribes, so they separated and came to
this island.
There is also the Island of Sheep. Salldm the Interpreter, the envoy of the Commander of the
Faithful al-Wathiq, to the king of the Khazars, said: ‘We saw an island between the lands of the
Khazars and the Bulghars in which were mountain sheep (as numerous) as locusts. They were
unable to flee, there were so many. When ships came to that island, they hunted as many as they
wished. They were all ewes and fat lambs. I saw no other animals on that island. It has springs, grass
and many trees. Praise be to Him whose blessings are past counting!’
Lodgings
... there is a great hospice intended for illiterate foreign visitors, but they take men of
learning to their houses. I stayed with one of the amirs known as Abu al-Qasim. Every day his
slaves slaughtered a sheep for me.
‘Aren’t there any leftovers from yesterday?’ I asked them.
‘Yes,’ they answered, ‘but this is what our master has ordered.’
The amir
This amir read a legal work, the Kitdb al-Muqni’ of al-Mahamill, with me. He spoke - may
God have mercy on him! - various languages, among them: Lakzan, Tabbalan, al-FIlan, al-
Za‘qalan, al-Khaydaq, al-Ghamlq, al-Sarir, Alan, Arsa, al-Zaqhakaran, the language of the
Turks, Persian and Arabic. 4 He used to receive men from different nations in my presence
and speak to each one in his own language.
The amir’s sister asks for legal advice
One day, when I was the guest of the sister of this amir, she said to her brother:
‘Lying with my husband, he ejaculated in his sleep. Ask this man if I ought to perform the
ritual ablutions.’
I was amazed and said to the amir.
‘Tell her the following. A woman of the ansar asked the Messenger of God - may God bless
him and save him! - this very question, and the Prophet replied:
‘“If you see water, wash yourself.”
‘Then the Messenger of God added - may God bless him and save him! - “How excellent
are the women of the ansarl Modesty does not prevent them from making a study of the law
if that will lead them to a more perfect observation of their faith.’”
Saqsin
I set sail on the Caspian Sea and reached a mighty river like a sea, many times larger than the
Tigris, and from it flow other large rivers.
On its banks is a city called Saqsin, 5 inhabited by forty tribes of the Ghuzz, each of which
has its own independent amir. Their dwellings are large and each of them is a huge tent, like
a dome, covered in felt, with room for a hundred men or more. There are also within the city
communities of merchants, both foreigners and westerners who have come from the Maghrib
in uncountable thousands. 6
There are mosques in the city, where the prayers are said on Fridays for the Khazars, who
likewise are divided into various tribes. In the centre of the town lives an amir of the
Bulghars, who has a great mosque in which to say the Friday prayers, and round about live
the different tribes of Bulghars. A people called the Suwar, also very numerous, pray in yet
another mosque. On feast days they set up many pulpits and each amir prays in front of many
different nations. Each different group has its own judges, religious scholars and preachers.
They all follow the law school of Abu Hanifa, except for the descendants of the Maghribls, 7
who follow that of Malik, and a few foreigners who are Shafi’I.
My home is now, in fact, among them and there I keep those of my concubines who have
borne children, my sons and my daughters. This country is extremely cold.
Sturgeon and other fish
In tins river are a number ot kinds ot tisii that 1 have never seen in any other part ot the
world. There is one kind which weighs as much as a large man and another sort that weighs
as much as a large camel. There are smaller ones, too. They have no bones or skulls, and no
teeth; they are like the fat tail of a sheep stuffed with chicken. They are even better and
sweeter than fat lamb. This fish is grilled and served with rice and it is better than lamb or
chicken. Each fish - and they weigh about a hundred mann - can be bought for half a ddnaq.
Enough oil comes out of their belly to provide lighting for a month and similarly half a mann
or more of roe. They are preserved in strips dried in the sun, and this is the most delicious
thing in the world. It is a pure reddish gold in colour, like amber, and it is eaten with bread;
there is no need to bake or fry it.
Currency and prices
For currency, they use white lead, valued at one dinar for eight Baghdadi mann. They cut it
into little bits and use it to buy the fruit, bread and meat they want.
Meat is cheap when sheep are available. They are usually brought by the infidel caravans.
One sheep costs half a ddnaq and a lamb costs a tussuj.
There is a great variety of fruit, among them a supremely sweet melon and another kind of
melon that is harvested in winter.
Wooden houses
The winters there are very cold and while they last, they make use of houses built out of
pine, using great trunks placed one upon the other, with roofs and terraces of wooden planks.
They light fires in these houses, which have small doors protected by sheepskins with their
fleece. Inside the house it is as warm as a bathhouse. They have an abundant supply of
firewood.
Frozen rivers
The river freezes until it is like land, and horses and animal carts can travel along it. They
even fight on the ice. I crossed the whole river when it was frozen and it was more than
1,840 of my paces wide, excluding the tributaries.
The works of the Jinn
Beside this great river, the Jinn dug Solomon a thousand canals, each a mile long. They piled
the earth which they dug out beside each canal, forming a mound alongside the canal, about
a bowshot high, so that there are, as it were, a thousand hills and a thousand canals.
The abundance of fish
These deep canals are filled with water from the great river. So many fish breed in them that
they seem like dry land. Any boat that comes to one of these canals can cast its net at its
mouth and the fish pour into the boat until it is completely full. Even if there were a hundred
boats, they could all be filled with every kind of fish from one single canal. These canals have
no outlet. There is nothing like them.
Coloured snow
Beyond these rivers and mountains, there is a land, several days’ journey away, where there
is snow of red, white and blue and other colours . 8 Ships are filled with it, and it is taken
down-river to Bulghar.
The distance from Saqsin to Bulghar by river is forty days.
Bulghar
Bulghar is also a great city, all built of pine. Its walls are of oak. Round about it, there are an
infinite number of peoples. It lies beyond the Seventh Clime . 9
The climate
When the days are long, they have twenty hours and the nights four, but on the other hand in
the winter, it is the nights that last twenty hours and the days but four. In summer, at
midday, it is very hot, hotter than anywhere else in the world; but at sunset and throughout
the night it is cold, so that one needs much clothing.
In Bulghar; a city of the north, located at the extreme limit of the Islamic world, forty days upriver
from Saqsin, the days in summer are twenty hours long and the nights four hours long. In the winter
it is the reverse, the nights are twenty hours long and the days four hours long. The cold is so great
at this time that if someone dies it is impossible to bury them until six months later, for the earth
freezes as hard as iron and it is impossible to dig a grave. One of my sons died there and I could not
bury him. His body had to wait six months until this could be done. The bodies of the dead are
frozen hard as stones . 10
I tried to fast in this city during the month of Ramadan, which fell in the summer, but I had
to give up and take refuge underground in a room where there was a spring.
In the winter, the cold is so intense that wood splits. It is at this season of great cold that
the king sets out on raids against the infidel and captures his women, his sons, his daughters
and his horses.
Honey
The people of Bulghar are more resistant to the cold than anyone else, and this is because
their food and drink largely consists of honey, which is very cheap there.
The bones of ‘Ad
In this country are found the bones of the people of ‘Ad. 11 A single tooth is two palms wide
and four long. The distance from the head to the shoulder is four arms in length. The head is
like a great dome. Many of these are found here.
Mammoth ivory
Under the earth, elephant tusks are to be found. They are as white as snow and as heavy as
lead. Each one weighs 200 marm, more or less. No one knows from what beast they come.
They are exported to Khwarazm and Khurasan. Combs, little boxes and other objects are
made from them, just as they are from ivory, but this material is stronger than ivory and
does not break. 12
The origin of the name Bulghar
North of this country, there are numerous peoples who pay tribute to the king of Bulghar.
The word Bulghar means ‘wise man’. And the reason is as follows:
A Muslim merchant came to this country on business. He was a jurisconsult and learned in
medicine. The wife of the king and the king himself were stricken with a very serious illness.
They were treated with all the remedies known to them, but the sickness only increased,
until they feared that they would die. Then the Muslim merchant said to them:
‘If I were to cure you and you were to recover your health, would you accept my faith?’
‘Yes,’ they replied.
So he gave them medicines and cured them, and they, and all their people, embraced
Islam. Then the king of the Khazars came to attack them with a great force and said to them:
‘Why have you embraced this religion without my permission?’
But the Muslim said to them:
‘Do not fear. Say: “God is great!”’
They said:
‘God is great! God is great! God is great! Praise be to God. Bless, oh my God, Muhammad
and the family of Muhammad!’
Then they fought with the said king and defeated his army, so that the king offered them
peace and embraced their religion. Then the Khazar king said:
‘I saw enormous men, mounted on whitish horses, slaughtering my host and putting it to
flight.’
And the faqih confirmed this, saying:
‘These are the troops of God - may He be honoured and exalted!’
Since among them a wise man is called bular, that land was called ‘Bular’, which means ‘a
sage’. The Arabs adapted it to their own tongue, so that it became ‘Bulghar’. I have read it
thus in the History of Bulghar set down in the qadl al-Bulghari’s own hand. 13 He was one of
the followers of Abu al-Ma‘alI al-Juwaynl 4 - may God have mercy upon him!
Beavers
Bulghar exerts its dominion over a people called WIsu (Ves) who pay taxes, even though they
live a month’s march away. Another people is called Aru. lb They live where very good
beaver, ermine and grey squirrel are hunted. There, in summer, the day is twenty-two hours
long. The best and highest-quality beaver pelts come from those parts.
The beaver is a wonderful animal. It lives in the great rivers and builds houses on land, at
the edge of the water. It makes a kind of high platform for itself and to the right another,
less high, for its wife and to the left another, for its children. Below, there is a place for its
slaves. The house has a door which gives on to the river and another, higher up, on to the
land. Sometimes, it eats the wood known as khalanj ; 16 at other times it eats fish. Some
beavers are jealous of others, and make them prisoners.
Those who trade in those lands and through the country of Bulghar have no trouble in
distinguishing the fur of slave beavers from those of the masters. This is because the slave
beaver cuts the wood of the khalanj and other trees with its teeth, and as it gnaws them, they
rub its sides and its hair falls off right and left. Hence they say, ‘This pelt is from the servant
of the beaver.’ The fur of the beaver who owns slaves, on the other hand, is perfect. God
Almighty has said: ‘And He inspired it (both) with lewdness and with godfearing.’ 17
The Sea of Darkness
Beyond Wisu, there is a region known as Yura, 18 on the Sea of Darkness. The day there is
very long in summer, so the merchants say that the sun does not set for the space of forty
days. In winter, on the other hand, the nights are equally long. The merchants say that the
Darkness is very close to this place, so that the people of Yura enter the Darkness provided
with torches. In the Darkness there is a tree as big as a large village and on it perches an
enormous creature, some say a bird.
Silent barter
They take different kinds of goods with them. Each merchant sets his wares out in a
particular place, marked with his sign. Then they all withdraw and when they come back
again, everyone finds something left beside his goods. If he approves the exchange, he takes
these wares. If not, he picks up his own merchandise and leaves the other things, without
ever transgressing or cheating. No one knows who it is that exchanges goods with them.
Imported swords
People bring swords from the lands of Islam, made in Zanjan, Abhar, Tabriz and Isfahan, but
only bare blades without pommel or decoration; simply the iron blank as it comes from the
furnace, after being tempered in water for a considerable time, until when it is hung from a
string and struck with the fingernail or with some object of wood or iron, it resonates for a
long time. 19 These are the swords suitable for transport to Yura.
Honey, bones and fur
The Yura do not make war and have no horses or beasts of burden. They have nothing but
huge trees and forests, in which honey is gathered. They also have great numbers of sable,
the flesh of which they eat. The merchants take to them the swords just mentioned and the
bones of cows and sheep in exchange for sable skins, and so make great profits.
Skis
The way to these places crosses country permanently covered in snow. The people fasten
specially smoothed boards on their feet. Each board is a fathom long and a palm wide, and
both the front and the back curve up from the ground. In the middle of the board, there is a
place for the person to put his foot, which consists of an indentation with very strong leather
straps, by which the feet are attached. Both boards, one on each foot, are yoked together by
long thongs, like the reins of a horse, which the man holds in his left hand. In his right, he
carries a stick, the height of a man, which has at the bottom a ball of cloth filled with a large
quantity of wool, the size of a human head, but weighing very little. The man leans on this
stick as he walks over the snow, pushing with it until it is behind his shoulder, like a boatman
poling a boat. In this way, he moves over the snow at speed and if it were not for this
ingenious contrivance, it would be absolutely impossible to walk, for the snow lies on the
earth like sand and never hardens. Thus, any animal that walks across it sinks in and dies,
except for dogs or other very small creatures, such as hares and foxes, because they run fast
and lightly. The coats of the foxes and hares in this country turn white like cotton, and in the
region around Bulghar during the winter so does the coat of the wolf.
Swords traded for furs and slaves
Now, these swords are exported from the lands of Islam to Bulghar with great profit for the
merchants. Then the people of Bulghar take them to Wisu, the place of the beavers, and the
people of Wisu take them to Yura, where they sell them for sable pelts, slave girls and young
boys.
Swords thrown in the sea
In Yura, every human being needs a sword each year to throw into the Sea of Darkness, for
only when they throw in swords does God make a great fish like a vast mountain come out of
the sea for them. This fish is pursued by another fish, many times greater, which seeks to
devour it. The smaller fish, fleeing the greater, comes close to land and stops in a place from
which it cannot return to the open sea. Therefore, it stays there, while the greater fish, since
it cannot reach the smaller one, goes back to the sea.
Then the people of Yura get in their boats and, heading for the smaller fish, cut the flesh
from its sides, without the fish moving or heeding them. They fill their houses with its flesh
and climb up on its back, which is like a huge mountain. It stays with them for some time,
during which they continue slicing off its flesh. All those who have thrown a sword into the
sea take their share of the fish. When the water of the sea rises and the fish is lighter, it
returns to the deep, having filled one hundred thousand houses or more with its flesh.
The girl who came from a fish’s ear
I was told in Bulghar that one year, they pierced the ear of one of these fish and, inserting a
cable through the hole, drew it to land. Then they opened the ear of the fish and from within
emerged a kind of girl, who looked like a human - white, with pink cheeks, black hair and
plump buttocks, like the most attractive of women.
The people of Yura took her and drew her to land, while the creature struck her face, tore
her hair and screamed. God had created for her in the middle of her body a kind of white
skin like a thick, strong cloth, which went from her waist to her knees, covering her private
parts and it was like a veil attached to her waist to hide her nakedness. They kept that girl
among them until she died. Truly, the power of God on High knows no limits!
The Yura
They say:
‘If the Yura do not throw the swords that we have mentioned into the water, no fish come
out and they die of hunger.’
The people of Wisu and Aru do not let the Yura enter the lands of Bulghar during the
summer, because if any of them enters that territory during the hot weather, it grows cold,
the water freezes as in winter and the people’s crops are ruined. This is something that has
been proved.
I saw a group of these people in Bulghar in the winter. They are reddish in colouring with
light-blue eyes and hair like linen, almost white. They wear linen clothes, despite the cold,
and some of them have cloaks of the most magnificent beaver skins, worn fur side out. They
drink barley water, as sharp as vinegar, which suits the heat of their constitutions, for they
eat the flesh of beavers and squirrels, as well as honey.
Giant birds
In their country, there are giant birds with very long beaks. 20 The beaks of these birds are
twisted to the right and to the left; the upper part, six palms to the right and six palms to the
left, in the shape of the letters lam-alif, like in this picture. If the bird needs to eat or drink, it
shuts its beak and eats and drinks.
The flesh of this bird is good for those who suffer from kidney or bladder stone, and they
take it to Bulghar in slices dried in the sun, which have to be hacked into pieces. If the egg of
this bird falls on ice or snow, it melts as if in the fire. They can only be preserved if laid on
earth or wood.
The river of the Saqaliba and its snakes
When I entered the country of the Saqaliba, I left Bulghar and travelled by boat down the
river of the Saqaliba. 21 The water is as black as that of the Sea of Darkness, and looks like
ink. It is, however, sweet, pleasant and clear.
In this river, there are no fish, but only great black snakes, one on top of the other. They
are far more numerous than fish and do no one any harm. There is also an animal like a small
cat with a black pelt, called the ‘water sable’. 22 Its fur is taken to Bulghar and Saqsin. It lives
in this river.
Produce of the lands of the Saqaliba
When I reached the land of the Saqaliba, I saw that it was very large and rich in honey,
wheat and barley. They have big apples; nothing could be finer. The cost of living is low.
Squirrel skins used as currency
For their dealings among themselves, they use old squirrel skins with no hair, that cannot be
used for anything and are absolutely worthless even though there is still fur on the heads and
paws. They reckon eighteen old skins to be worth a silver dirham and they tie them up in
bundles called a juqn. 23 With one of these skins, you can buy a great loaf of magnificent
bread, large enough to sustain a big man; and they can be used to buy slave girls, young
boys, gold, silver, beaver skins and other merchandise, in spite of the fact that in any other
country, a thousand loads wouldn’t buy you a bean and would be totally valueless.
When the skins are completely worn out in a household, they put them in sacks, once they
have been cut, and take them to a particular market, where there are men supervising the
workers. The workers string eighteen skins together with strong thread, forming a single
bundle. At the end of the thread, they attach a piece of black lead, sealed with a die stamp
bearing the image of the king. They charge a single skin out of the bundle in order to seal up
the rest. No one may refuse to accept them, either when buying or selling.
Justice
The Saqaliba have very strict norms of behaviour. If anyone dares to touch another man’s
slave girl, or his son, or his horse, or commit any kind of crime against him, he is obliged to
pay a sum of money. If he does not have it, his sons are sold, then his daughters and his wife,
to pay for his offence. And if he has neither family nor descendants, he himself is sold. He
never ceases to be a slave, serving his purchaser, until he dies or returns the sum for which
he was sold. Nothing whatever is given to him for any of the work he does for his owner.
Security for Muslim traders
It is a safe country. When a Muslim has business dealings with a local and that Saqlabi goes
bankrupt, his sons and house are sold to pay the merchant what he is owed.
The Saqaliba are Nestorians
The Saqaliba are brave. Like the Byzantines, they are Nestorian Christians. 25
Witch trials
There are a people around there who live in the woods and shave their beards. They live by a
great river and hunt beavers.
I was told that every ten years, witchcraft increases and the old witches begin to lead the
women astray. So they round up all the old women in their territory, tie their hands and feet
and throw them in the river. They let the old women who sink live, because they realize that
they are not witches, but those who float on the water are burned alive.
I travelled among them with the caravan for a long time. Their country is safe. They pay
taxes to Bulghar. They have no revealed religion and worship a kind of tree before which
they bow down. So I was told by those who know them well.
Ghurkuman (Kiev)
I came to one of the cities of the Saqaliba called Ghurkuman, where there are thousands of
descendants of the Maghribls. 26 They look like Turks, and they speak Turkish and shoot
arrows in the Turkish manner. They are known there by the name of HNH (Hun?).
I met a man from Baghdad named ‘Abd al-Karlm ibn Fayruz al-Jawharl, who had married
into the Muslim community there.
Ignorance of Friday prayer
I established the custom of public prayer on Friday among the Muslims there and taught
them about the khutba, since they did not know about praying together on Fridays.
On the way to Bashghird
One of my companions stayed there with them to instruct them, and I went on to Bashghird,
which is forty days above the lands of the Saqaliba, passing through infidel peoples from
innumerable different lineages. They live among tall trees and gardens. I have never seen
such trees anywhere in the world; they do not bear fruit.
A beautiful lizard
One day, at the foot of a tree, I saw a creature like the lizard called ‘izaycu It had two hands
and two feet. You would think that God most high had brought it from Paradise. It seemed as
if it were made of the purest red jacinth, so translucent that you could see through it, and
pure polished gold, the like of which I have never seen in this world, as if it were crafted
with the greatest art and skill. I was amazed when I saw it. My companions, mounted on
their horses, surrounded it. It gazed at us with eyes that seemed to be weaving a spell and
turned its head towards us, right and left, but it did not move and paid no attention to us
whatsoever.
Hungary
Then I reached the country of Hungary [Anquriya], where the people called Bashghird live.
They are descended from the first tribes that came from the lands of the Turks and entered
the lands of the Franks. They are brave and their numbers are beyond counting.
Their land, which is known as Hungary, consists of seventy-eight cities, each of which has
many fortresses, hamlets, farmsteads, mountains, forests and gardens. Uncountable thousands
of the descendants of the Maghribis live there and thousands, likewise uncountable, of the
descendants of the people of Khwarazm.
The people of Khwarazm serve the kings and pretend to be Christians, although they
practise Islam in secret. The descendants of the Maghribis, on the other hand, do not serve
the Christians, except in war, and openly practise Islam.
Hungarian Muslims
When I made contact with the descendants of the Maghribis, they treated me with great
honour. I taught them some basic religious knowledge and even induced some of them to
attempt to speak Arabic. I made a great effort to have them repeat and practise the ritual
prayers and other observances. I summarized the duties of pilgrimage for them and the
principles of the division of inheritances, which they began to follow.
The value of book-learning
One of them said to me:
‘I want to copy the Qur’an and learn from it.’
Since he spoke Arabic well, I answered:
‘Make an effort to learn it by heart and to understand it well, and never talk about what
the Qur’an says without an isnad. If you do this, you will achieve what you desire.’
He replied:
‘But did you not say that the Prophet - may God bless him and save him! - said: “Bind
learning with writing”?’
‘In a book,’ I said, ‘there is no knowledge, there is only writing that guides us to
knowledge. It only becomes knowledge when you harbour it in your memory, for knowledge
is the attribute of the wise man.’
And I recited to him this verse of mine:
Science is in the heart, it is not in books.
Do not immerse yourself in frivolities and games.
Then I also recited these lines of mine:
If you write knowledge down, it is like putting it in a basket;
If you don’t learn it by heart, you will never succeed.
The only one who triumphs is he who commits it to memory
After hearing it, and so guards against error.
‘When you know something by heart, then write it down from memory, and then that will
be knowledge that you have bound with writing. But if you copy it from a book, it will just
be a copy, and will not be knowledge at all. Get this quite straight.’
They did not know about congregational prayer on Fridays and they learned how to
perform it and to have the obligatory sermon. I explained to them:
‘The Prophet - may God bless him and save him! - has said:
“‘Friday prayer is the pilgrimage of the poor. He who cannot go on pilgrimage, but attends
the Friday prayers, will receive the reward of those who go on pilgrimage.’”
Today, the Friday sermon is preached, publicly or secretly, in at least ten thousand places,
for the country is very extensive.
The size of Hungary
I remained among them for three years, but I could not visit more than four cities. Their
country stretches from Rome the Great to the frontiers of Constantinople. There are
mountains there from which they extract gold and silver.
Prices
This country is cheaper and more prosperous than any other. Twenty sheep cost a dinar and
for the same price you can buy thirty lambs or kids. Five hundred rad of honey also cost a
dinar. A beautiful slave girl can be had for ten dinars and during the raiding season, a fine
slave girl or a Greek lad can be had for as little as three dinars.
A slave girl
1 bought a slave girl who had already borne a child, and whose father, mother and brothers
were still alive; I bought her from her owner for ten dinars. She was fifteen years old and as
beautiful as the moon, with black hair and eyes, and skin as white as camphor. She knew how
to cook, sew and embroider.
I also bought, for five dinars, another Greek slave girl, eight years old. One day I bought
for half a dinar two jars full of honeycomb with its wax and I said to her:
‘I want you to purify this honey and extract the wax.’
Then I went out and sat on a bench at the door of the house, where people were gathered.
After sitting with them for a while, I went back into the house and saw five disks of wax as
pure as gold and two jars full of liquid honey that seemed like rose water. The honey had
been purified and returned to the two jars, all within an hour.
She had a child, but it died. I freed her and gave her the name Maryam.
I wanted to take her with me to Saqsin, but I was afraid of the way she might be treated by
the Turkish concubines who had borne children to me and whom I kept in Saqsin.
Raids against Byzantium
The king of Bashghird 2 continually devastated the lands of the Byzantines. I said to those
Muslims:
‘Make every effort to go on jihad with this king, for thus God will set down the merit of
Holy War to your account.’
So they set out with this king to the territory of Constantinople and put twelve armies of
the king of Byzantium to flight. They came back with a band of Turcomen from the army of
Konya. I asked some of them:
‘How is it that you have come here in the army of the king of Byzantium?’
‘They hired us,’ they replied, ‘for two hundred dinars each and we didn’t know that there
were Muslims in this country.’
I arranged for them to leave for Byzantine territory, so that they could make their way
back to Konya.
The Byzantine emperor sues for peace
The lord of Constantinople 28 came to sue for peace, bringing with him great riches and many
Muslim prisoners whom he had in his power. One of these Muslim captives, who had been in
Constantinople, told me that the king of the Byzantines asked:
‘Why does the king of Bashghird come into my lands and destroy them, when before he did
no such thing?’
‘It is,’ they replied, ‘because the king of Bashghird has an army of Muslims whom he allows
to practise their religion publicly, and they are the ones who have urged him to invade your
territory and devastate your dominions.’
The king of the Byzantines replied:
‘I also have Muslim subjects, but they do not fight for me.’
‘That is because you,’ they said, challenging him, ‘force them to become Christians.’
The king replied:
‘From now on I will not force any Muslim to embrace my faith and I will build them
mosques so that will they fight for me.’
The king of Bashghird
The king of Bashghird is called kirdli 29 and his kingdom is much larger than that of the lord of
Byzantium. His armies are without number. His territory is greater than that of Byzantium by
a matter of twenty days’ march, or more. The king follows the religion of the Franks, because
he married their women. Nevertheless, he raids Frankish lands and captures all he can. Every
country fears his attack, because of the many armies he has at his disposal and his great
courage.
Muslim and Christian attitudes to wine
When he heard that I had forbidden the Muslims to drink wine and had allowed them to have
slave concubines, as well as four legal wives, he said:
‘This is not reasonable, for wine strengthens the body, whereas women weaken the body
and the sight. The religion of Islam is not rational.’
I then said to the interpreter:
‘Say to the king:
‘The religious law of the Muslims is not like that of the Christians. The Christian drinks
wine with his food, instead of water, without getting drunk and this increases his strength.
‘The Muslim, on the other hand, drinks wine only in order to get as drunk as possible. He
loses his reason, goes mad, commits adultery, kills, blasphemes and commits acts of impiety.
There is nothing good about it. He hands over his horse and arms, and wastes all he has,
simply in order to seek pleasure.
‘The Muslims here are your soldiers. If you send them out on campaign, they will have no
horses, arms or money, because they will have thrown them all away on drink. And you,
when you learn of it, will have to kill them or beat them or drive them out, or give them
new horses and weapons, which they will lose in the same way.
‘As regards slave concubines and legitimate wives, sexual intercourse suits the Muslims
because they are of a passionate temperament. Furthermore, given that they make up your
army, the more sons they have, the more soldiers for you.’
At this the king said:
‘Listen to this sheikh! What a wise man he is. Marry as often as you like and do what he
says.’
In this way, the king, who loved the Muslims, clashed with the Christian priests and
allowed the taking of slave concubines.
The author’s son
I left my eldest son, Hamid, there among them. When I left him, he was more than thirty
years old. He married two women, the daughters of respectable Muslims, and was blessed
with children. He was brave and generous. When he was a child, I gave him half a danaq for
each precept that he learned by heart.
Wild cows
In Bashghird there are wild cows as big as elephants. It takes two strong mules to carry the
skin of one and a head makes up a full cartload. They hunt them and call them thaytal. 30 They
are marvellous animals. Their flesh is fat and excellent; their horns as long and large as an
elephant’s tusks.
The bones of giants
I also saw in those lands many tombs of the people of ‘Ad. They dug out half the root of one
middle incisor for me and it measured a palm in width and weighed 1,200 mithqdls. They also
got me the knob of a wrist bone from another tomb, and I could not lift that bone from the
earth with one hand.
The building of Iram and the ten thousand giants
In his book, entitled Siyar al-muluk [Lives of the Kings], al-Shu‘bI 1 says that when Shaddad ibn
‘Ad built the city of Iram Dhat al-‘Imad, he sent his cousin al-Dahhak ibn ‘Alwan ibn ‘Ad ibn
Iram ibn Sam, accompanied by ten thousand giants, to Iraq and Khurasan.
With them went a believer, a disciple of Hud - may peace be upon him! - called Lam ibn
‘Amir ibn ‘Ad ibn Iram. But al-Dahhak intimidated him and Lam was afraid of him, for he had
urged him to cease his tyranny, impiety and corruption. Al-Dahhak said to him:
‘You have disobeyed the king and you have embraced the religion of Hud.’
Then Lam, through fear of al-Dahhak, departed and wandered far to the north of Rome the
Great, until he came to steppes where there was not one human soul. There he found a mine
of lead with which he built himself a domed tomb, 4,000 cubits in circumference and 1,000
cubits high, in which he was buried.
Meanwhile, al-Dahhak, when he realized Lam was missing, sent two of his commanders to
search for him, each with an army of followers. One of the commanders reached Bulghar and
the other Bashghird, seeking throughout the countries of the north, but without finding any
trace of him.
Al-Dahhak was assassinated and the giants remained in Bulghar and Bashghird, where their
tombs are to be found. As to the dome of lead that Lam ibn ‘Amir built over his tomb, it
bears a stone tablet with these verses written on it:
I am Lam ibn ‘Amir, he who replaced
The darkness of polytheism with purity.
Saying: ‘There is no God but He,
My Lord, Who is my refuge.’
Al-Dahhak and the infidels demanded
That I should follow them, erring and in blindness.
But I left the land with all my people and abandoned
My walled courtyards and campsites.
I believed in God, the Lord of Idris
And of Noah, and I was certain divine vengeance was to come.
I lived long years in the wilderness.
Afraid and fleeing from those who rebelled against God.
This tomb that you see before you, I built
With the help of God, the Powerful, of sheets of lead.
I ordered that my sons should bury me,
Here within, clad in my tunics and robes.
In future ages, there will come to me an envoy.
One of the noblest of the Banu Hashim.
You are merciful, generous and compassionate
With the orphans and the hungering poor.
Would that I might have lived to see him
To fulfil my desires and the merit of the elect.
A giant in Bulghar
In Bulghar, I saw a man of the race of ‘Ad, more than seven cubits tall. I came up to his
waist. He was so strong that he could take the leg of a horse that had just been slaughtered,
and in a moment, at great speed, break the bone and cut through the skin and nerves. Even
with an axe, I would not have been able to do it so quickly.
The king of Bulghar had a cuirass made for him, which he carried to battle with him in a
cart, and an iron helmet like a great cauldron. He fought with a great wooden mace, thick
and long, made from a massive oak which no man could lift, but in his hand it was like a
stick would be in ours. The Turks respected and went in awe of him, and when they saw him
coming towards them, they gave themselves up, saying:
‘Our lord is angry with us.’
Nevertheless, he was amiable, modest and in no way quarrelsome. In the whole of Bulghar
there was no bathhouse in which he would fit, except one, that was very spacious with high
doors.
In Bulghar in the year 530 (1136) I saw a man of the race of ‘Ad, more than seven cubits tall He
was called Danqa. He was so strong that he could carry a horse under his arm as if it were a goat.
He could also crush the leg of a horse and cut through its nerves with his hand, as if it were a bundle
of herbs. The king of Bulghar ordered a cuirass made for himi, which he used to transport in a cart ,
and a helmet the size of a huge cauldron. He fought with the trunk of an oak, which he brandished
in his right hand as if it were a walking stick. He could have killed an elephant with a single blow.
Despite all this he was an extremely modest person. When we met - and my head didn’t even reach
his belt - he used to greet me, make me welcome and heap honours upon me - may God have
mercy upon him!
There wasn’t a bathhouse in the whole city big enough for him to enter, except one, which had
very big doors.
He was the most extraordinary man 1 have seen in my Life. He had a sister as big as he was,
whom I saw several times in Bulghar. In that city the qadi Ya‘qub ibn Nu‘man informed me that this
woman, so exceedingly tall, had killed her husband, who was named Adam and was one of the
strongest men in the country. Clasping him to her bosom, she broke his ribs, killing him instantly. 32
The author leaves Bashghird
I asked the king of Bashghird if he would let me go to the land of the Muslims, to Saqsin,
saying:
‘I have my children there, and my family and I will return to you, if God wills.’
He replied:
‘You will leave your eldest son Hamid here and I will appoint a Muslim envoy to go with
you, to collect and bring back poor, humble people, Muslims and Turks, who are good at
shooting arrows.’
And indeed, he wrote me a letter for the king of the Saqaliba and sealed it with a seal of
red gold that bore his effigy.
The person who was sent with me was a man called IsmaTl ibn Hasan, who had been one
of my students and was the son of one of those brave Muslim commanders who did not
hesitate publicly to practise their religion. A group of his servants and friends went with him.
Return to the land of the Saqaliba
When I reached the land of the Saqaliba, the king received us very well, thanks to the letter
from the king of Bashghird, of whom he was much afraid. We spent the winter there, and in
spring set out for the land of the Turks heading in the direction of Saqsin. ‘Abd al-Karlm ibn
Fayruz al-Jawharl left with me, along with his wife and her children, who were from the land
of the Saqaliba. He left her in Saqsin and returned alone to the country of the Saqaliba.
Recruiting archers
I gathered a group of Muslims skilled at shooting arrows for the envoy of the king of
Bashghird. I sent along with them one of my students who already knew something of
religious law and said to him:
‘I am going to go on pilgrimage and, if God wills, I shall return to you by way of Konya.’
When they had left for Bashghird, I set out on a month’s voyage to the Caspian Sea heading
for Khwarazm, where I had been before.
The fruits of Khwarazm
The country of Khwarazm extends for a hundred farsakhs. There are many cities, villages,
farmsteads and fortresses. In some of them there are fruits, the like of which I have not seen
in any of the other countries I have visited. There is a kind of watermelon sweeter and more
delicious than sugar with honey, and another variety with a green rind speckled with black.
The flesh inside is brilliant red, like a carnelian, and extremely sweet, firm and consistent.
These melons weigh about ten marm each, more or less. They keep them in the houses during
the winter and sell them in the markets.
Similarly, there are grapes, both red and white, as large as dates. They are picked in winter
and are cheap. There are also apples, pears and pomegranates. They decorate the shops with
these fruits at all seasons, but especially in the spring, and you would think they had just
been picked in the orchard.
Encounters in Khwarazm
The people of Khwarazm are generous, good poets and noble-minded. Their khatib was al-
Muwaffaq ibn Ahmad al-Makkl, who told me that he had met the vizier ‘Awn al-DIn.
‘I have never,’ he said ‘among all the viziers and people of worth, met anyone as deserving,
pious and generous as the vizier ‘Awn al-DIn.’
Someone else who came to see me and frequented my house, was a man called ‘Abd al-
Wahid ibn Fayruz al-Jawhari, who had been in the service of the vizier and was deeply
grateful to him.
Again, the sheikh and religious scholar Mahmud al-Shafi‘I, the imam of the sunni
community, told me the following story:
‘I was in Baghdad with the khatib and we went to see ‘Awn al-DIn, the vizier, with a poem
in praise of the Commander of the Faithful, and entered his presence. In the diwan, they said
to him:
“‘You must stand while you read your poem in praise of the Commander of the Faithful.”
‘So the khatib and I remained standing until he finished reading the poem that he had
composed in praise of the Commander of the Faithful in the presence of ‘Awn al-DIn - may
God prolong his glory!’
The enchanted mosque
In the region of Khwarazm, on the road to Saqsln, some eight farsakhs from the city there is a
marvel. There is a deep canyon in the mountains at the bottom of which is an artificial
mound surmounted by a structure like a mosque, with a dome and four entrances with high
porticoes. The mosque is covered with tiles of gold, clearly visible to anyone who stops to
gaze at it. The mound is surrounded on all sides by stagnant water, fed by the rain or the
snow in winter. Below the water, the bottom is clearly visible.
The water is roughly two cubits deep, judging it by eye. The surface is covered with
pondweed and it smells bad. No one dares enter the water, or dip in a hand or foot, since
anything which touches the surface of that water disappears and vanishes, and no one can see
where it goes. The width of the expanse of water, again judging by eye, is about a hundred
cubits.
Mahmud, the lord of Ghazna, who was a powerful and victorious king, came to this place 34
and stayed there for some time. He had rowing boats brought, but when they were placed on
that water, they disappeared. Then he ordered his troops to bring earth, canes, wood and
stones, loading all the beasts of burden and the camels, and to throw it all into the water. But
it all vanished. Then, he ordered them to inflate skins, animal hides and bladders of cows and
sheep with air, but they too disappeared in the water without leaving a trace.
The king of Khwarazm, ‘Ala’ al-Dawla Khwarazmshah 35 - may God have mercy on him! -
also made every possible effort to reach the treasure, but achieved nothing.
They say that if an animal falls into this water, it never emerges again; even though men
tie ropes to it and try to haul it out, they never succeed and it vanishes. On the other hand, if
a strong man looses a wooden arrow, it can hit the gold. There is so much gold that it can
never be counted and it is in full view; all the people who come there from Khwarazm can
see it, and so can travellers and infidels, when they go to that place. But there is no
stratagem to get hold of it, unless God wishes to allow it. It is one of the marvels of the
world.
A jurisconsult from Khwarazm told me how a certain peasant entered the city and in the
marketplace took out a bowl of green emerald, the like of which had never been seen. Taken
into the presence of the Khwarazmshah, the latter asked him:
‘Where did you find this?’
‘I went to see the treasure,’ answered the peasant, ‘and there I saw a great green dome,
like this bowl. Under the dome, there was a tomb and the sarcophagus too was green, like
this. Above the sarcophagus, there were great bowls, but I could not carry any of them,
because of their size and weight, except for this one, which was the smallest I could find. I
marked the door, leaving some stones as a sign.’
The Khwarazmshah rode at once with his troops to the place the peasant had described, but
he found nothing and said:
‘These are the works of the Jinn!’
He gave the peasant some money, rewarded him and exempted him from taxes. That bowl
was without price. Only God knows the truth!
The same Khwarazmshah gave orders to dig a canal from the Oxus to reach that place, but
he died before it was finished.
The author’s apology
I have only mentioned, in a very abbreviated fashion, something of what I have seen, since if
I had elaborated in any detail, it would have made the book much longer and this epitome is
quite sufficient. If it had not been for the noble imams asking and begging me to gather the
information together, I would not have undertaken this book, for I do not consider myself a
writer.
Return to Baghdad
I left Bashghird in the year 1153, and set off from Saqsin for Khwarazm in 1154. I left
Khwarazm to go on the pilgrimage in Rabi‘ I of the year 1155, in Shawwal ... [lacuna] I made
the pilgrimage and returned to Baghdad, where my lord the vizier ‘Awn al-DIn, the glory of
Islam, purest imam, the honour of mankind, support of the dynasty, the shield of the people,
the crown of kings and sultans, the lord of all viziers, the foremost of East and West, the
chosen of the caliphate, the right hand of the Commander of the Faithful - may God with His
favour make eternal the suppression of the enemies of his government! - showed me favour
and bestowed upon me so many robes of honour, so much money and other favours, that
they can be neither counted nor set down.
He also obtained a letter for me from the caliph - may God prolong his protecting shadow
over the two worlds, the East and the West, and overthrow and humiliate his enemies! - to
the lord of Konya, the son of king Mas‘ud 36 - may God have mercy upon him! He in turn
wrote a letter allowing me to pass through his territory on the way back to Bashghird - if
God on High should allow me to return and be reunited with my family, 37 something not
difficult for God, indeed most easy, for He is All-Powerful.
Praise be to God, Lord of the Worlds! May God bless our Prophet Muhammad, seal of the
Prophets, and all his friends, companions, wives and descendants. God suffices us, for He is
the most excellent Protector!
PART III
PASSAGES FROM OTHER GEOGRAPHERS, HISTORIANS AND TRAVELLERS
1. Qudama ibn Ja‘far on Alexander in China 928-932
Qudama (c. 883-948) was the author of a number of works on history and criticism. This extract is
from Kitab al-kharaj wa sina‘at al-kitaba (The Book of the Land Tax and the Art of the
Secretary), a handbook for government officials written 928-932.
This account of Alexander/Dhu al-Qamayn is typical of the Arabic versions of the Alexander
Romance that occur in tenth-century histories , even to the alternation in the same text of the
Qur’anic Dhu al-Qctmayn, ‘Possessor of the Two Homs’, with Iskandar, ‘Alexander’. The
anachronisms need no comment. The historical Alexander (356-323 bc) ’contemporary with the
Warring States period of Chinese history (475-221 bc) ’never reached China, while Qudama
describes the Tang (ad 618- 907). The Turkic title tarkhan, here used for the Tibetan nobility,
occurs in the story of Salldm the Interpreter as the title of the ‘king’ of the Khazars.
After Dhu al-Qarnayn had vanquished and killed Porus, king of India, he remained in India
for seven months, but dispatched his armies to Tibet and China. Some of those he sent
returned to tell him that all the kings of the east had agreed to submit to him and pay him
tribute, having learned of his victories over Darius and Porus, the kings of Persia and India,
and of his justness and noble conduct.
So he left one of his most loyal generals as his viceroy in India with 30,000 men and set off
with the rest of his army for Tibet. The king of Tibet came out to meet him, accompanied by
his tarkhans, and saluted him, saying:
‘Oh king, I have learned of your justness and good faith towards your enemies after your
victories over them, and this has proved to me that you are following God’s will. I have been
inspired to take your hand and not to fight you or defy you, convinced that anyone who
opposes you opposes God, and will be vanquished. That is why I and my people and my
empire submit to you. Tell us what you desire.’
Alexander [Iskandar] answered with kindness: ‘Whoever acknowledges the rights of God
obliges us to acknowledge his rights. I hope you will be pleased with our justness and good
faith.’
He then asked to be guided to the Turks who inhabited the steppes, for the settled Turks
had already submitted to him. The king of Tibet hastened to obey and offered gifts.
Alexander only accepted them after much urging. They consisted of 4,000 ass-loads of gold,
and the same amount of musk. Alexander gave a tenth part of the musk to his wife Roxana,
the daughter of Darius, king of the Persians, and distributed the rest among his friends. The
gold was deposited in the treasury.
Then Alexander asked the king of Tibet to precede him with his army on the road to China.
The king of Tibet left his son Madablk to govern his kingdom during his absence. Alexander
also left him one of his generals with 10,000 men.
When they arrived on the border of China, the king of Tibet in the vanguard and Alexander
following with the bulk of his army, the king of China came out to meet them at the head of
ten battalions, each one numbering 100,000 men. He sent a message to Alexander, telling
him that he had been informed of his good faith and noble actions, and because of this had no
desire to fight, although he felt quite prepared to do so if Alexander wanted war. He asked
Alexander to let him know which he preferred.
Alexander replied that the king of China must pay one-tenth of the revenues of his empire,
just as the rulers of other countries had agreed to do when they submitted. If he refused,
Alexander would not quail before the armies of the king, but put his trust in God, who had
the power to make a small army triumph over a large. Along with this message he sent a
number of Indians and Persians, whom he asked to bear witness to his justness and good
treatment.
The king of China immediately made his submission and asked Alexander if he could pay
the tribute in white and coloured silk and other manufactured goods. Alexander agreed, and
the king sent him 1,000,000 pieces of coloured silk and the same of white, 500,000 of
damask silk [ kimkawa ], 10,000 saddles with stirrups, bridles, cinches and so forth, along with
1,000,000 mann of silver.
Alexander stayed in the country until he had finished building a city, called Stone Tower
[Burj al-Hijara]. He garrisoned it with 5,000 Persians under the command of one of his
generals named Neoclides.
Then he turned to the north, still accompanied by the king of China, and conquered the
land of Shul. Then he turned his attention to the Turks of the steppes, who submitted. There
he learned that there was a very numerous Turkic people to the north-west, who were
harassing neighbouring countries with their invasions. Alexander consulted the king of China
about them, and the king told him that the only booty worth taking from them were herd
animals and iron. He said their country was a remote corner of the earth with the Green Sea,
which no one can sail, to the north and very high and inaccessible mountains to the west and
south. In fact, there was only one way out, a narrow defile like a corridor. If this corridor
could be closed, they couldn’t get out, and the world would be spared their ravages.
Alexander immediately recognized the truth of this, and closed the defile with the wall 1
spoken of in the Qur’an.
After having completed this task, Dhu al-Qarnayn returned by way of the land of the pagan
Turks who live in towns and arrived in Soghdia, where he founded the cities of Samarqand,
Dabuslya and Alexandria the Farther. Continuing on this route, he came to Bukhara, where he
founded the city of the same name, then to the country of Merv, where he built the capital,
then he founded the cities of Herat and Zaranj. He then passed through Jurjan and ordered
the foundation of the cities of Rayy, Isfahan and Hamadhan. He then went to Babylon, where
he stayed for several years.
Qudama ibn Ja‘far (1889), 263-5
2. Ibn Khurradadhbih on Sallam the Interpreter and Alexander’s
Wall 844
Ibn Khurradddhbih (c. 820- c. 911) served for many years as director of the barid, the Abbasid
postal and intelligence service. He was a friend the caliph Mu‘tamid (reigned 870-892) and wrote
on musical theory, literature and geography. His Kitab al-masalik wa’l-mamalik (Book of Roads
and Kingdoms) is the earliest surviving work of descriptive geography in Arabic. Later geographers,
including Istakhri, Ibn Hawqal and Muqaddasi, augmented and perfected this form by incorporating
their own observations and those of knowledgeable travellers. We know from citations by later
authors that we possess only an abridgement of his great work.
This is what Sallam the Interpreter told me:
The caliph Wathiq, having seen in a dream that the barrier raised by Dhu al-Qarnayn
(Alexander the Great) between our lands and those of Gog Magog had been breached, sought
for a person capable of going to that place and discovering what state it was in. Ashnas 2 said
to him:
‘No one is so suitable for the task as Sallam the Interpreter, who speaks thirty languages.’
Wathiq summoned me and said:
‘I want you to go to the barrier and examine it and tell me what you find.’
He gave me an escort of 50 strong young men, 5,000 dinars and 10,000 dirhams as the
price of my blood. Each man received a personal allowance of 1,000 dirhams and a year’s
provisions. On the orders of the caliph, felt jackets covered with leather were prepared for
us, fur-lined boots and wooden stirrups. Two hundred mules carried the provisions and water
necessary for the journey.
We set out from Samarra bearing a letter from Wathiq addressed to Ishaq ibn Isma‘Il, the
governor of Armenia residing at Tiflis, asking him to help us on our journey. Ishaq gave us a
letter for the ‘Master of the Throne’. 3 The latter wrote concerning us to the king of the Alans,
and this king wrote to the Filan-shah, and he in turn to the tarkhan, 4 king of the Khazars.
Having reached the tarkhan, we stopped for a day and a night and then we set out again,
accompanied by five guides whom this king gave us.
After having travelled for twenty-six days, our company entered a land where the earth
was black and gave off a rank smell. Luckily, we had taken the precaution of providing
ourselves with vinegar to combat the bad air. After ten days’ march across this country, we
spent another twenty days passing through ruined towns. We were told that they were the
remains of the towns previously invaded and devastated by the people of Gog and Magog.
At last, we reached a number of fortresses built close to the mountains, in one chain of
which stands the Barrier. We found people who spoke Arabic and Persian. They are Muslims
and know how to read the Qur’an, and they have schools and mosques. They asked us where
we came from. On learning that we were the envoys of the Commander of the Faithful, they
exclaimed in surprise:
‘The Commander of the Faithful!’
‘Yes,’ we replied.
‘Is he old or young?’
‘He is young.’
Their amazement increased and they added:
‘Where does he live?’
‘In Iraq, in a city named Samarra [Surra-man-ra’a].’
‘We have never heard of it,’ they answered.
The distance between these fortresses varies from one to two farsakhs.
Next we reached a city named Ikah (Hami), which is ten farsakhs in circumference and has
gates of iron which are closed by lowering them. Within the confines of this city there are
fields and windmills. It is in this city that Dhu al-Qarnayn camped with his army. It is three
days’ march from there to the Barrier. Passing fortresses and small towns, on the third day
one reaches the Barrier. The chain of mountains forms a circle. It is said that Gog and Magog
are enclosed within. The people of Gog are taller than those of Magog; their heights vary
between a cubit and a cubit and a half. 5
Then, we reached a high mountain surrounded by fortifications. This is the Barrier of Gog
Magog. There is a ravine 150 cubits wide through which these people used to sally forth to
infest the earth, until it was sealed by Dhu al-Qarnayn. The Barrier was built in the following
manner. First the earth was excavated to the depth of 30 cubits and foundations were laid,
built of brass and iron, up to the level of the ground. Then, two enormous piers were raised,
25 cubits wide and 50 cubits high; at the base a projection jutted out 10 cubits beyond the
gate, one on each slope of the mountain, to the right and the left of the ravine. The whole
construction is made of iron bricks sheathed in brass, each of which is IV 2 cubits long and 4
fingers thick. An iron lintel 120 cubits long and 5 wide rests on the two great piers, and its
ends extend 10 cubits beyond them. This lintel supports masonry built of iron bricks sheathed
in brass that rises out of sight to the summit of the mountain. I estimate the height to be
roughly 60 cubits. It is crowned with thirty-seven iron crenellations, each armed with two
horns that curve inward towards each other. Each crenel is 5 cubits long and 5 wide. The
portal itself has double doors of iron, 50 cubits wide and 50 high and 5 thick. The uprights of
the doors swivel on an axis that is in proportion to the lintel. The whole structure is so solid
that not a breath of wind is felt either through the door or from the mountainside, as if it had
been made in one single piece. On the portal, 25 cubits from the ground, there is a bolt 7
cubits long and a fathom round, and 5 cubits above the bolt there is a keyhole, even longer
than the bolt itself, and the two wards are each 2 cubits long. Above the lock hangs a key IV 2
cubits long and 4 spans in circumference, with twelve iron teeth, each the thickness of a
pestle. The chain holding it is 8 cubits long and 4 spans round, and the ring by which it is
attached to the door is like the rings on a piece of siege machinery. The threshold of the door
is 10 cubits wide and 100 cubits long, not including the part that runs under the pillars. The
part that juts out is 5 cubits wide. All these measurements are given in the cubits known as
‘black cubits’.
Near the gate there are two forts, 200 cubits square. To the right and the left of their gates
two trees have been planted and a stream of fresh water runs between the two forts. The
instruments that were used in the building of the wall are preserved in one of the forts:
enormous iron cauldrons, like those used for making soap, iron ladles and tripods, each of
which can support four of these cauldrons. There are also the iron bricks left over from the
construction of the wall, fused together by rust.
The responsibility for guarding this gate is hereditary, like the caliphate, and runs in the
family of the commander of these fortresses. He rides out every Monday and Thursday in the
early morning, followed by three men, each equipped with a hammer. One of them climbs a
ladder, which is leaning against the door, and when he reaches the top step, he strikes the
bolt with his hammer. Then, if one applies one’s ear to the door, one hears a muted sound
like a nest of wasps. Then everything falls silent again. Towards midday, a second blow is
given and the same sound heard, but a little louder. In the afternoon, they strike the bolt
again, with the same result. The commander only retires at sunset. The point of these blows
is to tell those on the other side of the door that the guards are at their posts and to let them
know that Gog and Magog have made no attempt against the door.
Near this place there is a large fortified area, 10 farsakhs wide and deep, in other words an
area measuring 100 farsakhs square.
Sallam said:
‘Having accompanied the commander on one of these sorties, I asked whether the gate had
ever suffered any kind of damage. I was told that there was only one small crack no bigger
than a thread.
“‘Have you no fears concerning the door?”
‘“None,” they said. It is 5 Alexandrian cubits thick, each of which equals IV 2 “black cubits”.
‘I took a knife from my boot and began to scratch the crack, from which I obtained half a
dram of dust, which I tied in a handkerchief to show Wathiq.
‘On one of the panels of the door, there is an inscription in letters of iron, which gives the
following words in the original language:
“‘When the promise of my Lord comes, He will make it powder, and the promise of my
Lord is true.” 6
‘The general appearance of the building is strange, because the yellow layers of brass
alternate with the black layers of iron, so that for the most part it is striped horizontally.
‘It is still possible to see on the mountain the mould made for casting the doors; the place
where the furnaces stood for blending the brass; the place where the tin and the copper were
melted together; the cauldrons, apparently made of brass, each with three handles, together
with their chains and hooks for the purpose of hauling the brass up to the top of the Barrier.
‘We asked the guardians of the gate whether they had ever seen anyone of the race of Gog
and Magog. They told us that one day they had seen several of them on top of the mountain,
but a violent wind had thrown them back to their side. Seen at a distance, their height did
not appear to be more than a span and a half.
‘Seen from the outside, the mountain has no plateau or downward slope; it has absolutely
no vegetation; there are no trees or plants to be seen; it stretches into the far distance, steep,
smooth and white in colour.
‘On our departure, we were escorted by guides who led us in the direction of Khurasan. We
crossed a country whose king is called al-Lub and then the kingdom of Tabanuyan, which
pays taxes to the governor of Khurasan. We spent several days at the residence of this prince.
Then we continued on our journey. It took eight months to travel from the Barrier to
Samarkand. On the way, we passed through Isblshab, Ushrusana, 7 Bukhara and Tirmidh,
where we crossed the river of Balkh (Oxus). By the time we arrived at Nishapur, there were
only fourteen of us left, having lost, either through death or sickness, twenty-two men on the
way out and fourteen on the way back.
‘We had been obliged to abandon the sick in villages along our route and bury the dead in
their clothes. As regards provisions for the return journey, the garrisons of the forts had
supplied us with everything we needed. At Nishapur, we went to ‘Abd Allah ibn Tahir, who
gave me 8,000 dirhams and distributed 500 to each of my companions. Furthermore, he
allotted 5 dirhams a day to each horseman and 3 dirhams to each foot soldier, until we
reached Rayy. We only had 23 mules left.
‘When we reached Samarra, I presented myself before Wathiq to tell him of our adventures
and I showed him the iron dust that I had extracted from the door. The caliph gave thanks to
Allah and large sums were distributed in alms. Each of my men received a reward of 1,000
dinars. Our journey to the Barrier had taken sixteen months and the return had taken twelve
months and odd days.’
First Sallam the Interpreter gave me a short summary of his journey, then he dictated the
account in the form that he had presented to Wathiq.
Ibn Khurradadhbih (1885), 162-70
3. Ibn Hayyan on the Viking attack on Seville 844
The chronicler Ibn Hayyan (987-1076) wrote the fullest and most reliable history of al-Andalus that
we have. His Kitab almuqtabis, from which the following passage is taken, is based on earlier
sources, carefully credited. Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Rdzi (888-955) and his son fsa (d. 980), his
sources for the Viking attack of 844, are among the earliest historians of al-Andalus. Their work
survives largely because Ibn Hayyan incorporated passages in Muqtabis; the title means brands
plucked from the fire’, that is, selections from earlier authors, saved from oblivion.
News of the appearance of the fleet of the majus, of the Norsemen 8 - may God curse them -
from the Mediterranean 9 off the western coast of al-Andalus in the time of the amir ‘Abd al-
Rahman ibn al-Hakam, 10 and their attack on his people and the great harm they did to his
cities and to the Muslims, and how the amir came to their aid and brought reparation, and
what happened during this attack, insofar as we have been able to learn, for full knowledge
belongs only to God, Whose ways are glorious.
Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-RazI said:
‘At the end of the year 229/844, the ships of the Norsemen [ al-Urdumaniyin ], who were
known in al-Andalus as majus, appeared off the western coast of al-Andalus, landing at
Lisbon, their first point of entry to the forbidden lands. It was a Wednesday, the first day of
Dhu al-Hijjah [20 August] in that year, and they remained there thirteen days, during which
time they engaged in three battles with the Muslims. Next, they went on to Cadiz and after
that to Medina Sidonia. There a battle took place with the Muslims, at which Lubb ibn Musa
was present, having received a safe-conduct from the amir ‘Abd al-Rahman. He had received a
letter from Wahb Allah ibn Hazm, the governor of Lisbon, telling him that along his stretch
of coast 54 ships of the majus had appeared, with 54 smaller craft and their crews, and that
the amir had immediately sent out letters to the governors of the coastal regions so that they
might be warned to be on their guard.
‘On Wednesday, after the fourteenth night of the month of Muharram in the year 230/1
October 844, the ships of the Norsemen halted at Seville, which was undefended. That day
they plundered all they could, taking advantage of the negligence of its inhabitants. As soon
as the news reached the amir, ‘Abd al-Rahman immediately sent his cavalry to the river, 11 led
by ‘Abd-Allah ibn Kulayb, Muhammad ibn SaTd ibn Rustum and ‘Abd al-Wahid bin Yazid al-
Iskandaranl. They occupied the Aljarafe 12 and camped there. Later they were reinforced by
‘Abd Allah ibn al-Mundhir and ‘Isa ibn Shuhayd with a party of men who had joined them.
They sent letters to the governors, telling them to proclaim a general call to arms to the
Muslims to fight off these unexpected tyrants, whose unprovoked attack on a defenceless
region was without precedent. People gathered from all sides and rallied at Cordoba. At their
head was the eunuch Abu al-Fath Nasir, the favourite of the amir ‘Abd al-Rahman, who
hastened out with a great multitude and a very great show of force.
‘Meanwhile, the Norsemen - may God curse them! - had arrived, ship after ship, and
occupied the city of Seville. They spent seven days there, killing the men and enslaving the
women and children, until the commanders arrived and clashed with them again and again,
causing more and more casualties, until the death toll began to have an effect on them and it
became clear that they had been defeated.
‘The greatest battle against them took place on a Wednesday, when there were five nights
left of the month of Safar in the year 230/11 November 844 at the village of Tejada, near
Seville. God destroyed many of them and they died there, and 30 of their ships were burned
and many of the dead were hung from posts and others from the trunks of the palm trees of
Seville. From the day that they entered Seville and overcame its inhabitants to the day of
their defeat and the final departure of the survivors was 40 days. God caused their leader to
die and reduced their numbers and news of the victory was sent to the provinces, not only in
al-Andalus, but also to the Berber amirs of the North African coast, to ‘Aflah ibn ‘Abd al-
Wahhab, the lord of Tahert and client of the Umayyads, and to others. They were sent the
heads of the leader and his two hundred paladins. God calmed the agitation of al-Andalus,
which had shuddered at such audacity against its people and the defiance of its power, and
dispelled its fear.’
‘Isa ibn Ahmad al-Razi, remarking on this news, said:
‘The fleet of the Norsemen - may God destroy them! - coming from the Western Sea,
which is adjacent to them, seized Seville at the beginning of the year 230/September 844.
‘The first point at which they disembarked was the Island of Qabtil (Isla Menor), some way
up the river, a place dedicated to horse breeding. They disembarked on the Sunday, 12 nights
after the beginning of Muharram, in the year 230/29 September 844, and their ships were 80
in number. On the second day after their arrival, four ships were sent off to Coria (del Rio),
which stands on the banks of the river, to the west of the city, inhabited by Yemeni Arabs
from Yahsub, known as the Bani Ma‘dl, four miles from the place where they disembarked at
Qabtil. They immediately sacked the village and killed everyone they encountered there in a
great attack, the first that they carried out against the Muslims. This village has continued to
be a ribat and during the reign of the caliph ‘Abd al-Rahman III, 13 a congregational mosque
was built there, because formerly it did not have a place for prayers.
‘Then, on Wednesday, the third day after their arrival, the Norsemen - may God curse
them - left the village of Qabtil and set out in the direction of the city of Seville. When they
reached the Church of the Water [Kanisat al-Ma ], two farsakhs from the city, and were already
close, the Muslims of the city and others who joined them decided to fight off the infidels.
They sallied out against them, filled with great courage and determination, but without
discipline. They had no designated leader, not even a standard-bearer, because the governor
had deserted and fled to the city of Carmona, leaving them with no support on which they
could rely. When the Norsemen approached the town from the river, the weakness of the
people and their diminishing numbers were clear to them, so they set out in their ships after
them, shooting flight after flight of arrows against them, so that they scattered. Then they
disembarked and fought them on the riverbank, most vigorously and with relentless pressure,
so that the Sevillians were put to flight and none of them stood their ground. Most of them
fled back to the city, each going his own way, trying to escape, for the Norsemen burst upon
them, attacking any who remained, people who were weak or stubborn, and the wives and
children of those who fled, killing, seizing and enslaving. They remained in the city seven
days, looting and showing no respect for what is sacred.
‘Then, when eight nights of the month of Muharram remained [9 October], they set out,
laden with their booty and loaded it on to their ships. They returned to their original
encampment on the Island of Qabtil, where they remained for several days. They allowed the
ransom of prisoners and children, but at the same time they were enraged against the
inhabitants of the city who had fled, so they returned to the attack, determined to
exterminate them. The people, however, were prudent and did not return, nor appear at all.
When the Norsemen got to the city, they found not a soul there, except for a small number of
fugitives who tried to defend themselves in a mosque. They were surrounded and all were
killed, for which reason it came to be known thenceforth as the “Mosque of the Martyrs”.
‘News soon reached the amir ‘Abd al-Rahman. He was very angry and sent letters to the
districts and frontiers, telling them to mobilize their people and hasten to come from all
parts. The first measures were taken by Muhammad ibn Sa‘Id ibn Rustum, who set out for
Seville with a troop of horsemen, who quickly reached the district where the Norsemen were
established and began to set traps for them. They set up an ambush at a place called Tablada,
two miles south of Seville, next to the river. Ibn Rustum sent some of his swiftest men,
chosen from among the frontier guards and others to head for the city and provoke
skirmishes with the Norsemen, who were occupying it. This was on a Friday, when nine
nights remained of the month of Safar in the year 230/7 November 844. The Norsemen,
seeing that the attackers were few in number, hurled themselves against them; they moved
their ships down the river in parallel and disembarked in great numbers to fight and pursue
them until they reached the village of Tejada, where the commander Muhammad ibn SaTd
ibn Rustum and the bulk of his troops lay in ambush.
‘When the Norsemen had gone past them, the Muslims sallied out against them. The
Muslims who were fleeing suddenly turned back against their pursuers, who gave up the
chase, dismayed at what had happened. They suffered a terrible defeat, in which God
awarded their heads to the Muslims. More than a thousand barbarians were killed and four
hundred captured. Only those who hastened to the ships, fleeing and terrified, escaped. They
embarked and defended themselves from on board, abandoning 30 ships, left undefended by
their crews, who were either dead or captive. Ibn Rustum halted before them, ordering that
the captives should be beheaded in front of their companions, which increased their terror.
Meanwhile, the Muslims took possession of their empty ships and burned them all.
‘The enemies of God, shamefully defeated, withdrew. Thanks be to God!’
Ibn Hayyan (1999), 185v-186v
4. Zuhrl on Viking ships c. 1160
Abu ‘Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr al-Zuhri (d. between 1154 and 1161) was an Andalusian
cosmographer about whom almost nothing is known. He was a contemporary of al-Idrisi (d. 1165)
and Abu Hamid al-Ghamati (d. 1169). His Kitab al-ja‘fariya (Book of Geography) is based on
earlier written sources , some of which have not survived. This passage describes a Viking longboat.
There used to come from this sea [the Atlantic] large ships which the people of al-Andalus
called qaraqir. They were big ships with square sails, and could sail either forwards or
backwards. They were manned by men called majus, who were fierce, brave and strong, and
excellent seamen. When they attacked, the coastal peoples fled for fear of them. They only
appeared every six or seven years, never in less than 40 ships and sometimes up to 100. They
overcame anyone they met at sea, robbed them and took them captive.
Zuhri (1968), 215 [§ 240]
5. Ibn Khurradadhbih on the routes of the Radhaniya and the Rus
c. 830
For Ibn Khurradddhbih, see headnote to III: 2. This passage is the earliest description of the sea and
land routes linking Europe with China, and the Jewish and Scandinavian merchants who engaged in
long-distance trade in the ninth century. Ibn Khurradddhbih wrote between 846 and 885, but it is
possible that this account dates from the first decades of the ninth century. As it reads like an
intelligence report, it may come from the archives of the barid.
The routes of the Jewish merchants called al-Radhanlya:
These merchants speak Arabic, Persian, Greek, Latin, Frankish, Andalusian and Slavic. They
journey from west to east, from east to west, travelling by land and by sea. From the west
they export eunuchs, young girls and boys, brocade, beaver pelts, marten and other furs and
swords.
They set sail from the Mediterranean coast of the land of the Franks [Firanja] and head for
Farama in Egypt. There they transfer their merchandise to the backs of camels and travel to
Qulzum on the Red Sea, a distance of 25 farsakhs. They sail down the Red Sea to al-Jar, the
port of Medina, and to Jiddah, the port of Mecca. Then they continue on to Sind, India and
China.
They return from China with musk, aloe wood, camphor, cinnamon and other eastern
products, docking at Qulzum, then proceed to Farama, whence they once more set sail on the
Mediterreanean Sea.
Some head for Constantinople to sell their goods to the Byzantines. Others go to the palace
of the king of the Franks.
Sometimes these Jewish merchants set sail on the Mediterranean from the land of the
Franks to Antioch. They then proceed overland to al-Jabiya (al-Hanaya) on the Euphrates, a
journey of three days. They sail down the Euphrates to Baghdad, then down the Tigris to al-
Ubulla, whence they sail down the Arabian Gulf to Oman, Sind, India and China.
The routes of the Rus merchants are as follows:
The Rus, one of the Saqaliba people, journey from the farthest reaches of the land of the
Slavs [Saqlab] to the eastern Mediterranean and there sell beaver and black fox pelts, as well
as swords. The Byzantine ruler levies a ten per cent duty on their merchandise. On their
return they go by sea to Samkarsh, 14 the city of the Jews, and from there make their way
back to Slavic territory.
They also follow another route, descending the River Tanais (Don), the river of the
Saqaliba, and passing by Khamllj, 15 the capital of the Khazars, where the ruler of the country
levies a ten per cent duty. There they embark upon the Caspian Sea, heading for a point they
know. This sea is 500 farsakhs long. Sometimes they transport their merchandise on camel
back from the city of Jurjan to Baghdad. There, Slavic-speaking eunuchs interpret for them.
They pretend to be Christians and, like them, pay the poll tax.
The overland routes of the Radhanlya are as follows:
The Jewish merchants also follow a land route. Merchants departing from Spain or France
sail to southern Morocco and then to Tangier, from where they set off for Ifriqiyya and then
the Egyptian capital. From there they head towards Ramla, visit Damascus, Kufa, Baghdad
and Basra, then cross the Ahwaz, Persia, Kirman, Sind and India, and finally arrive in China.
Sometimes they take a route north of Rome, heading for Khamllj via the lands of the
Saqaliba. Khamllj is the Khazar capital. They sail the Caspian Sea, make their way to Balkh,
from there to Transoxiana, then to the yurt 16 of the Toghuzghuz, and from there to China.
Ibn Khurradadhbih (1885), 153-5
6. Ibn al-Faqih on the Radhaniya 903
Nothing is known of this author except that he was bom in Hamadan. The passage is taken from his
Kitab al-buldan (Book of Countries), which from internal evidence can be dated to 903. The
surviving manuscripts, one of which is the Mashhad manuscript which also contains Book of Ibn
Fadlan, are all abridgements of a much longer original Although Ibn al-Faqih is clearly following
Ibn Khurradddhbih here, there are significant differences between their accounts of the Radhaniya
merchants, most notably Ibn al-Faqih’s replacement of Rus by Saqalib.
Someone relates that it is stated in the Torah: ‘Rayy is one of the ports of the earth and the
place of commerce for mankind.’
According to Muhammad ibn Ishaq, Rayy has a fine climate and its buildings are
marvellous. It is the gate of commerce, the refuge of libertines, the bridegroom of the earth,
the highway of the world. It lies mid-way between Khurasan, Jurjan, Iraq and Tabaristan. It
is the most beautiful creation on earth. It has the Surr and Sarban quarters, and to it flows
merchandise from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Khurasan, Khazaria and the country of the Burjan
(Bulghars).
Merchants sail from east to west and west to east, carrying brocades [ dibaj ] and fine
quality silk [ khazz ] from the land of the Franks 18 [Firanja] to al-Farama. Then they sail from
Qulzum and cross the sea to China, carrying these products. Then they carry cinnamon and
celadon [ mdmiran ] and all the products of China until they come back to Qulzum and cross
[the isthmus of Suez] to al-Farama.
These are the Jewish merchants called Radhaniya. 19 They speak Persian, Greek, Arabic and
Frankish. They embark from al-Farama and sell the musk and aloes wood as well as
everything they have brought with them from the kingdom of the Franks. Then they come to
Antioch, then go to Baghdad and then to al-Ubulla.
As for the Saqalib merchants, they bring fox and beaver pelts from the depths of their
country to the Mediterranean, where the Byzantine king imposes a ten per cent tax on them.
Then they go by sea to Samkarsh of the Jews. From there, they either go on to the Saqaliba
or take the way from the sea of the Saqaliba to the river of the Saqaliba (Volga), until they
come to the gulf of the Khazars, where the ruler imposes a tax of ten per cent. Then they go
to the sea of Khurasan (Caspian), usually disembarking at Jurjan, where they sell all their
goods, which are then sent to Rayy, and the most amazing thing is that this is the emporium
of the world.
Ibn al-Faqih (1885), 270-71
7. Ibn Khurradadhbih on exports from the western Mediterranean
885
For Ibn Khurradadhbih, see headnote to III: 2.
The goods that are exported from the western Mediterranean are Saqalib eunuchs and
Roman, Frankish and Langobard slaves, and Roman and Andalusian slave girls, and beaver
pelts and other furs, aromatics such as storax, and drugs such as mastic. From the sea floor
near France comes the substance called bussadh, commonly known as coral.
Ibn Khurradadhbih (1885), 92
8. Ibn Rusta on the Khazars 903-913
Ibn Rusta was a native of Isfahan and made the pilgrimage to Mecca in 903. He wrote a seven-
volume encyclopedia of historical and geographical knowledge, completed in 913, of which only one
volume survives. Ibn Rusta seems to have had access to a more complete version of Ibn
Khurradddhbih than any that we have, and it is possible that the material here comes from that or
perhaps from the lost work of Jayhanl The information Ibn Rusta gives on the Khazars and other
peoples north of the Caucasus is thought to come from an anonymous source probably composed c.
860.
Between the Pecenegs and the Khazars is a journey of ten days through steppe lands and
forests. There is no main road or beaten track between them and the Khazars; there is only
this route through forests and thickets, until they reach the country of the Khazars.
The country of the Khazars is extensive. On one side is a great mountain [chain: Caucasus]
and it is the same mountain [chain] that slopes down, at its far end, to Tulas and Abkhaz.
This mountain [chain] reaches to the region of Tiflis.
They have a king called the Isha, 20 and a greater king called Khazar khdqan. Though he has
this name, the Khazars do not take orders from him. The Isha has the power to command and
the control of the army, and answers to no higher authority. Their supreme authority [the
Khazar khdqan] is Jewish, and so is the Isha and those commanding officers and important
men who support him. The rest of them follow a religion like the religion of the Turks.
Their city is Sarighshin and nearby is another city called [Khanbaligh?]. 21 The inhabitants
dwell in these two cities during the winter, but in the spring go out to the steppe and stay
there until the onset of winter.
There are Muslims in these two cities. They have mosques, imams, muezzins and Qur’an
schools.
Their king, the Isha, imposes a levy of cavalry on the people of power and wealth, in
accordance with their wealth and means. They raid the Pecenegs every year. This Isha leads
the expedition himself, going with his men on raids. They present a handsome spectacle.
When they go out in any direction, they go out fully armed, with banners, lances and strong
coats of mail. He rides with 10,000 horsemen, some regular troops, others levied on the
wealthy. When he goes in any direction, a sort of disk, like a drum, is carried in front of him.
A horseman bears it before him and he follows leading the army, who can see the light
reflected from the disk. When they take booty, it is gathered together in his camp and the
Isha takes what he likes for himself, leaving the rest to be divided among the troops.
Ibn Rusta (1892), 139-40
9. Ibn Rusta on the Burtas 903-913
For Ibn Rusta, see headnote to III: 8.
The lands of the Burdas (Burtas) are located between the lands of the Khazars and those of
the Bulkar (Bulghar). They are fifteen days’ march from the land of the Khazars.
They obey the king of the Khazars and supply him with 10,000 horsemen.
They recognize the authority of no chief. Instead, in each community are found one or two
old men whose opinion they seek when quarrels arise. In principle, however, they submit to
the king of the Khazars.
Their lands are vast and they live in forests. They periodically raid the territories of the
Bulkar and the Peceneg. They are valiant and brave.
Their religion is like the religion of the Ghuzz (Oguz).
They are handsome, good-looking and well-built.
If one of them quarrels with another, or suffers an injustice or an intentional or
unintentional wound, no reconciliation between them is possible until the injured party has
taken vengeance.
When a girl reaches marriageable age, she is no longer under the authority of her father
and can choose any man she wants. The man comes and asks the father for her hand, and her
father says yes or no according to the wishes of his daughter.
They have camels and cattle and lots of honey. Most of their wealth comes from marten
pelts [ dalaq ].
They are divided into two types, one of which burns their dead and the other inters them.
Their lands are flat and most of their forests are khalanj trees. They cultivate fields, but
most of their wealth comes from marten pelts and wool [ wabar ].
Their territory is seventeen days’ march in length and breadth.
Ibn Rusta (1892), 140-41
10. Ibn Rusta on the Bulkars 903-913
For Ibn Rusta, see headnote to III: 8. See also headnote to III: 11.
The Bulkars (Bulghars) border the lands of the Burdas (Burtas). They are camped on the bank
of a river that flows into the Khazar Sea (Caspian) and is called the Itil (Volga). They live
between the Khazars and the Saqaliba. Their ruler, called Almish, is a Muslim. The region is
marshy and thickly forested, in the middle of which camps the population.
They are composed of three hordes, the Barsula, the Isghil (Askel) and the Bulkars, all
living together in one place. They trade with the Khazars and the Ruslya (Rus), who bring
their merchandise to them. The Bulkars, who live on both banks of the Itil, offer various
products in exchange, such as the pelts of sable, ermine and grey squirrel and other furs.
They are an agricultural people, who grow all sorts of grain, wheat, barley and millet. The
majority are Muslim and there are mosques and Qur’an schools in their inhabited places.
They have muezzins and imams.
The infidels have the custom of prostrating themselves when they meet their friends.
These Bulkars are camped three days’ march from the Burdas, whom they raid frequently
and bring back as captives. They have horses and coats of mail and their arms are superb.
They pay tribute to their ruler in the form of horses and the like. When a man marries, the
king takes a horse. When Muslim ships come to them, a tax of ten per cent is levied on the
merchandise.
They dress like the Muslims and their tombs are constructed like those of the Muslims.
Their wealth consists above all of marten pelts [ dalaq ]. They don’t use hard cash [ amwal al-
sdmita], since their unit of exchange is the marten pelt, which is worth 2 V 2 dirhams.
Sometimes they use round silver dirhams, which they receive from Muslim lands, in exchange
for their wares. [Then they in turn use those dirhams to pay the Rus and Saqaliba, for these
peoples will only sell their goods for hard cash.] 22
Ibn Rusta (1892), 141-2
11. Ibn Rusta on the Magyars 903-913
For Ibn Rusta, see headnote to III: 8. Despite the variant spelling, the ‘country of IskiV must be the
same as ‘IsghiV in III: 10.
Between the country of the Pecenegs and the country of Iskil (Askel), which belongs to the
Bulkars (Bulghars), lies the first of the Magyar frontiers. The Magyars (Majgharlya) are a
race of Turks. Their chief rides at the head of 20,000 horsemen. He is named kundah, but the
one who actually rules them is called jilah. 23 All the Magyars implicitly obey this ruler in
wars of offence and defence.
They dwell in tents and move from place to place in search of pasturage. Their territory is
vast, extending to the Black Sea, into which two rivers flow, one larger than the Oxus. Their
campsites are located between these two rivers. During the winter, everyone camps by the
nearest river. They stay there, living by fishing, because this is the best place to spend the
winter.
The Magyar country is rich in wood and water. The land is well watered and harvests
abundant. They lord it over all the Slavs who neighbour them and impose a heavy tribute on
them. These Slavs are completely at their mercy, like prisoners.
The Magyars are pagans, worshipping fire. They make piratical raids on the Slavs and
follow the coast [of the Black Sea] with their captives to a port in Byzantine territory named
Karkh (Kerch).
It is said that the Khazars used to be protected from attack by the Magyars and other
neighbouring peoples by a ditch.
When the Magyars bring their prisoners to Karkh, the Greeks go there to trade. The
Magyars sell their slaves and buy Byzantine brocade, woollen rugs and other products of the
Byzantine empire.
Ibn Rusta (1892), 142-3
12. Ibn Rusta on the Saqaliba 903-913
For Ibn Rusta, see headnote to III: 8.
It is ten days’ march from the lands of the Pecenegs to the lands of the Saqaliba. The first
town encountered after crossing the frontier is Wabnlt. 24 To reach it, one crosses steppe and
trackless wilderness, with springs and thick forest. The country where the Saqaliba dwell is
flat and heavily forested. There are no vineyards or cultivated fields. They have a sort of
wooden box, provided with holes, in which bees live and make their honey; in their language
they are called ulishaj. They collect around ten jars of honey from each box. They herd pigs as
if they were sheep.
They burn their dead. When a woman dies, they cut her hands and face with a knife. The
day after the funeral of a man, after he has been burned, they collect the ashes and put them
in an urn, which is buried on a hill. After a year, they place twenty hives, more or less, on
the hill. The family gathers and eats and drinks there and then everyone goes home. If the
dead man had three wives, and one of them says she loved him, she raises two posts near the
tomb, and sets another horizontally across them. To this cross beam she attaches a rope and
ties the other end round her neck. When these preparations have been made, they remove the
stool she has been standing on and she strangles. Her body is then thrown in the fire and
burnt.
They all worship fire. Their chief crop is millet. At harvest time, they place a few grains in
a dish and hold it up to the sky, saying: ‘Lord, it is you who give us our daily bread; continue
to show us your benevolence.’
They have different kinds of lutes, pan pipes and flutes a cubit long. Their lutes have eight
strings. They drink mead. They play their instruments during the incineration of their dead
and claim that their rejoicing attests the mercy of the Lord to the dead.
They have very few mules, and even notables possess very few horses. Their arms are
javelins, shields and lances; they have no others.
They obey a chief named subanj 25 and carry out his orders. He dwells in the middle of the
land of the Saqaliba. Their supreme lord, called ‘chief of chiefs’, however, is named
Svetopolk. 26 The subanj is his lieutenant and viceroy. This king has many cattle and lives
exclusively on their milk. He has splendid, finely woven and effective coats of mail. The
name of the town in which he lives is Graditsa. 27 For three days every month a great market
is held there and every sort of commercial transaction takes place.
The extreme cold which afflicts the country is so harsh that the inhabitants are forced to
construct underground dwellings, roofed with wood like a church and completely covered
with earth. The head of the family builds one of these for his family and relatives. They bring
firewood and stones, light the wood until the stones turn red hot and then throw water on
them. The steam released warms the room and the inhabitants take off their clothes and live
in this shelter till spring.
The ruler levies fixed taxes every year. Every man must supply one of his daughter’s
gowns. If he has a son, his clothing must be offered. If he has no children, he gives one of his
wife’s or concubine’s robes. In this country thieves are strangled or exiled to Jira (Yura?), the
region most remote from this principality.
Ibn Rusta (1892), 143-5
13. Ibn Rusta on the Rus 903-913
For Ibn Rusta, see headnote to III: 8.
The Rus [Ruslya] live on an island in a lake. 28 This island is three days’ march across and
consists of forest and thickets. It is pestilential and the soil is so damp that when a man steps
on it, it quivers underfoot.
They have a ruler called khdqan Rus. The Rus raid the Saqaliba, sailing in their ships until
they come upon them. They take them captive and sell them in Khazaran 29 and Bulkar
(Bulghar). They have no cultivated fields and they live by pillaging the land of the Saqaliba.
When a son is born, the father throws a naked sword before him and says: ‘I leave you no
inheritance. All you possess is what you can gain with this sword.’
They have no dwellings, villages or cultivated fields. They earn their living by trading in
sable, grey squirrel and other furs. They sell them for silver coins which they set in belts and
wear round their waists.
Their clothing is always clean. The men wear gold bracelets. They treat their slaves well
and dress them suitably, because for them they are an article of trade.
They have many cities. They are generous hosts, treating their guests well. Strangers who
take refuge with them or visit them receive a warm welcome, and no one is allowed to harm
them or treat them unjustly. A stranger who has a complaint or who has suffered an injustice
is certain to find protectors and defenders.
They use ‘Sulayman’ swords. 30 If an enemy makes war against them, they all attack
together, and never break ranks. They form a single fist against the enemy, until they
overcome them.
If one of them has a quarrel with another, it is referred to the ruler, who settles it as he
sees fit. If they do not agree with his settlement, he orders the difference to be settled by
single combat. The man with the sharpest sword wins. 31 The companions of the two
adversaries come out and stand [watching] with their arms. The two men fight, and the
winner imposes his will on his adversary.
In their lands they have medicine men who have power comparable to the gods, for they
can order the sacrifice of women, men or horses to their creator. Anything ordered by these
medicine men must faithfully be executed. Any medicine man can seize a man or animal, put
a rope round his neck and hang him until he dies, saying that he is a sacrifice to God.
They have great stamina and endurance. They never quit the battlefield without having
slaughtered their enemy. They take the women and enslave them. They are remarkable for
their size, their physique and their bravery. They fight best on shipboard, not on horseback.
They use up to a hundred cubits of cloth to make their trousers. The man must wrap
himself in the cloth and fasten it between his knees. 32
They never go off alone to relieve themselves, but always with three companions to guard
them, sword in hand, for they have little trust in one another. Treachery is endemic, and
even a poor man can be envied by a comrade, who will not hesitate to kill him and rob him.
When a leading man dies, they dig a hole as big as a house in which they bury him dressed
in his clothes and wearing his gold bracelet, accompanying the corpse with food, jars of wine
and coins. They bury his favourite woman with him while she is still alive, shutting her inside
the tomb and there she dies.
Ibn Rusta (1892), 145-7
14. Mas^dl on the Iron Gates 943
Mas‘udi (d. 957) was bom in Baghdad. He travelled widely, finally settling in Egypt in 941, where
he completed the first draft of his universal history, Muruj al-dhahab wa ma‘adin al-jawhar (The
Meadows of Gold and Mines of Precious Gems) in 943, revising it in 947 and in 956. All
surviving manuscripts are from the 947 edition, but the passages below were written in 943. See also
headnote to III: 25.
The Caucasus [Jabal al-Qabkh] is a great chain of mountains. This huge area contains a large
number of kingdoms and peoples. There are no less than seventy-two different peoples, each
with their own king and speaking a language different from their neighbours. The mountains
are seamed with valleys and ravines. At the head of one of these passes is the city of
Darband, 33 built by Chosroe Anushlrwan in a place between the mountains and the Sea of the
Khazars (Caspian Sea). The same ruler built the wall of which one end extends for a mile into
the sea and the other reaches into the Caucasus, following the rise and fall of the mountain
crests and descending into the valleys for a distance of some forty farsakhs until it terminates
at a fortified point called Tabarsaran. Every three miles or so, depending on the importance
of the route upon which it opens, he placed an iron gate; nearby, inside the walls, guards
were stationed to protect and watch that portion of the wall. This rampart formed an
impassable barrier against the evil intentions of the peoples inhabiting the mountains, the
Khazars, Alans, various Turkish peoples, Avars [Al-Sarir] and other infidel tribes.
The high peaks of the Caucasus cover such a large area that it would take two months or
more to traverse their length or breadth. Only the Creator can number the peoples that live
there. One of the passes through these mountains near Darband leads to the Sea of the
Khazars, as we have said. Another, discussed earlier in this book, leads to the Black Sea, into
which flows the channel of Constantinople. Trebizond is located on this sea. Every year many
markets are held there, frequented by a large number of Muslim, Byzantine, Armenian and
other merchants, without counting those who come from Circassia.
If God, Mighty and Exalted, had not, in His wisdom and great power and compassion for
the perilous situation of His servants, aided the rulers of Iran in founding the city of Darband
and constructing these ramparts, which extend both into the sea and over the mountains as
we have said, and in building castles and establishing colonies ruled by properly constituted
kings, there is no doubt that the rulers of Georgia, the Alans, the Avars, the Turks and other
nations we have named would have invaded the territories of Bardha‘a, Arran, Baylaqan,
Azerbaijan, Zanjan, Abhar, Qazwin, Hamadan, Dlnawar, Nihawand and the frontiers of the
dependencies of Kufa and Basra, thereby reaching Iraq, had God not blocked their advance in
the way we have described.
This is especially true now that Islam has weakened and declined. The Byzantines are
making inroads against the Muslims, the Pilgrimage is in peril, 34 Holy War has ceased,
communications have been interrupted and roads are insecure. Every local military chief has
taken power in his region and made himself independent, just as the ‘Party Kings’ 35 did after
the death of Alexander the Great, until Ardashir ibn Babak, the Sasanian, re-established
political unity and put an end to endemic warfare, restoring security to the people and
cultivation to the land. This lasted until Muhammad - may prayers and peace be upon him -
received his mission from God and effaced the vestiges of unbelief and the traces of other
doctrines. Islam has always been triumphant, until this year 332/943, when under the
caliphate of the Commander of the Faithful Muttaqi, its supports are shaking and its
foundations crumbling. We seek help from God for the state we find ourselves in.
Mas‘udl (1966), §§ 442-3, 504
15. Mas‘udl on the Khazar capital 943
For Mas‘udi, see headnote to III: 14.
The inhabitants of Darband are bordered by a people called Khaydhan, who form part of the
Khazar nation. Their capital was formerly called Samandar, and lay eight days from Darband.
It is now inhabited by Khazars, but when it was conquered in the early days of Islam by
Salman ibn Rabfa al-Bahill, the king moved the capital to Itil, seven days’ journey away.
This is where the Khazar king now resides. The town is divided into three parts by a large
river which descends from the high plateaux of the land of the Turks. One branch flows
towards the territory of the Bulgars and falls into the Sea of Azov. 38 Itil is built on both banks
of the river, in the middle of which is an island which is the centre of government. The royal
palace is located on one end of the island, which is linked by a bridge of boats to both banks
of the river. The population is made up of Muslims, Christians, Jews and pagans.
Mas‘udi (1966), § 447
16. Mas‘udl on the Khazars 943
For Mas‘udi, see headnote to III: 14.
The king, his court and all those of the Khazar race practise Judaism, to which the king of the
Khazars was converted during the reign of Harun al-Rashld. 39 Many Jews from Muslim and
Byzantine cities came to settle among the Khazars, particularly since Romanus I, 40 the king of
the Byzantines in our own time (332/943), forced the Jews in his kingdom to convert to
Christianity. Further on in this volume we will give the history of the rulers of Byzantium,
which we will set out in order, and will speak of this king as well as the two other rulers who
shared power with him. A great number of Jews, therefore, fled from the land of the
Byzantines and sought refuge with the Khazars. This is not the place to speak of the
conversion of the Khazar ruler to Judaism, as we have already discussed this subject in our
previous works.
The pagans who live in this country belong to many different races, among which are the
Saqaliba and the Rus, who live in one of the two parts of the city. They burn their dead on
pyres along with their horses, arms and equipment. When a man dies, his wife is burned alive
with him, but if the wife dies before her husband, the man does not suffer the same fate. If a
man dies before marriage, he is given a posthumous wife. The women passionately want to
be burned, because they believe they will enter Paradise. This is a custom, as we have
already mentioned, that is current in India but with this difference: there, the woman is not
burned unless she gives her consent.
The Muslims are dominant in the land of the Khazars because they make up the king’s
army. They are known by the name Arslyya. 41 They originally came from the region around
Khwarazm, and settled in the Khazar kingdom a long time ago, shortly after the appearance
of Islam, when they fled the double ravages of famine and plague which devastated their
homeland. These are strong, courageous men, in whom the king of the Khazars places his
confidence in the wars which he wages. When they established themselves in his kingdom
they stipulated, among other things, that they be allowed the free exercise of their religion,
that they might have mosques and publicly give the call to prayer, and that the king’s chief
minister should be chosen from among their number. In our days the one who occupies this
post is a Muslim named Ahmad ibn Kuyah. He has made an agreement with the king whereby
he and his army will not fight against Muslims, but will march into battle against the infidel.
Today, around 7,000 of them serve as the king’s mounted archers. They carry a shield and
wear helmets and chain mail. They also have lancers equipped and armed like other Muslim
soldiers.
They also have their own qctdis. It is a rigid custom in the Khazar capital that there should
be seven judges, two for the Muslims, two for the Khazars, who make their decisions in
accordance with the Torah, two for the Christians, who make theirs according to the Gospels,
and one for the Saqaliba, Rus and other pagans. This last judge follows pagan law, which is
the product of natural reason. When a serious case that the judges cannot decide comes up,
the parties involved consult the Muslim qctdis and obey the decision made in accordance with
Islamic law. The king of the Khazars is the only ruler of these eastern countries to have a
paid army. All the Muslims who live in the country are known as Arsiyya.
The Rus and the Saqaliba, who are pagans as we have said, served as mercenaries and
slaves of the king. Besides the Arsiyya, there are also a certain number of Muslim merchants
and artisans, who have emigrated to this country because of the justice and security with
which the king rules. In addition to the congregational mosque, whose minaret towers over
the king’s palace, there are many other mosques to which are attached schools where the
Qur’an is taught to children. If the Muslims and the Christians united, the king would have no
power over them.
Mas‘udi (1966), § 448
17. Mas‘udi on the khaqan of the Khazars 943
For Mas‘udi, see headnote to III: 14.
What we have said so far about the king of the Khazars does not apply to the khaqan, whose
official role consists of living in the palace of another king, confined in the inner apartments,
from which he never emerges. He is not allowed to mount a horse or show himself to the
courtiers or to the people. As he lives in the harem, he does not govern or take any part in
state affairs. Despite this, the authority of the ruler would not be accepted without the
presence of a khdqan in his palace in the capital. When the Khazars suffer a famine or some
other disaster strikes their country, if the fortunes of war turn against them in favour of an
enemy nation, or if any other catastrophe suddenly comes upon them, the people and the
leading men go in a body to the king and say: ‘This khaqan has brought us nothing but bad
luck; his reign has brought only disaster. Put him to death, or let us kill him.’ Sometimes the
king hands him over and they kill him, or he kills him himself. At others, the king defends
him, saying that he had committed no crime or fault that deserved such punishment. This is
the present custom among the Khazars. I don’t know if this institution goes back to ancient
times, or is more recent, but the practice of always choosing the khaqan from the same family
argues that the title goes back a long time.
Mas‘udl (1966), § 453
18. Mas^dl on the Bulghars 943
For Mas‘udi, see headnote to III: 14.
The Khazars have ships which they sail on a river that flows, above their city, into the great
river 42 which traverses it. This river is called the Burtas, and its banks are inhabited by many
sedentary Turkish peoples who form part of the Khazar kingdom. Their settlements are
continuous and extend from the land of the Khazars to the land of the Bulghars. This river,
which flows from the land of the Bulghars, carries vessels from both kingdoms. Burtas, 43 as
we have already said, is also the name of a Turkish people who live along the banks of this
river, from which they have taken their name. The pelts of black and red foxes called burtdsi
are exported from their country. Some of these furs, above all the black, are worth 100
dinars or more. The red furs are worth less. The black furs are worn by Arab and non-Arab
kings, who esteem them more than they do sable, ermine and other similar furs. They make
hats, caftans and fur coats out of them. There is no king who does not possess a fur coat or a
caftan lined with the black fox fur of Burtas.
The upper reaches of the Khazar River (Volga) communicate by one of its branches with a
gulf of the Sea of Pontus, 44 also called the ‘Sea of the Rus’ because the Rus, who are the only
ones to sail it, live on one of its shores. They form a numerous pagan nation that doesn’t
recognize authority or revealed law. Many of their merchants trade with the Bulghars. In
their country the Rus have a silver mine comparable to the one in the mountain of Banjhlr
(Panjhir) in Khurasan.
The Bulghar capital is located on the Sea of Pontus. 45 If I am not mistaken, these peoples,
who are a kind of Turk, inhabit the Seventh Clime. 46 Caravans continually pass back and
forth between the Bulghars and Khwarazm, which is a dependency of the kingdom of
Khurasan. Because the route passes through the encampments of other Turkish nomads, they
are constrained to place themselves under their protection. At the present moment
(332/943), the king of the Bulghars is a Muslim, converted as the result of a dream during
the caliphate of Muqtadir, sometime after the year 310/922. One of his sons has made the
pilgrimage to Mecca, and when he passed through Baghdad the caliph gave him a standard, a
black robe of honour and a gift of money. These people have a congregational mosque.
Their king" invaded the territories of Constantinople at the head of at least 50,000
cavalry. From there he dispatched expeditions which reached all the way to Rome, then to
Spain, the territories of the Burgundians, 48 the Gallicians and the Franks. In order to reach
Constantinople, this king had to travel two months along a route that passed through both
cultivated and desert lands. In 312/924 a Muslim expedition set out from Tarsus on the
Syrian frontier under the command of the eunuch Thamal, known as al-Dulafi, commander of
the frontier. He was admiral of a fleet made up of vessels from Syria and Basra. After having
crossed the mouth of the channel that leads to Constantinople and then another gulf of the
Mediterranean (Adriatic), which has no outlet, the Muslims reached Venice. 49 A detachment
of Bulghars, who had travelled overland, joined them to reinforce them and told them that
their king was a short distance away. This proves the truth of our statement that some units
of the Bulgharian cavalry reached the Mediterranean coast. A number of them embarked on
the ships from Tarsus and returned with them.
The Bulghars are a large, powerful and warlike nation, which has subjected all the
neighbouring peoples. One of the Bulghar cavalrymen, who had embraced Islam along with
their king, held off one or even two hundred infidel horsemen. It is only thanks to their
defensive walls that the inhabitants of Constantinople are able to resist them. It is the same
with all those who live in this country; the only way they can defend themselves from the
attacks of these formidable enemies is by fortresses and defensive walls.
Mas‘udi (1966), §§ 453-6
19. Mas‘udi on the Land of the Midnight Sun 943
For Mas‘udi, see headnote to III: 14.
In the land of the Bulghars the nights are extremely short during part of the year. They even
say that between nightfall and dawn a man barely has time to bring his cooking pot to the
boil. In our previous works we have explained this phenomenon from the astronomical point
of view and have shown why, at a point on the earth in the polar regions, there are six
consecutive months of darkness, succeeded by six months of daylight. The scientific
explanation for this is given by the astronomers in their astronomical tables.
Mas‘udi (1966), § 457
20. Mas^dl on the Saqaliba 943
For Mas‘udi, see headnote to III: 14.
The Saqaliba are descended from Madhay, the son of Japheth, the son of Noah and all the
Saqaliba peoples derive their origins and trace their genealogies back to him, or at least this
is the opinion of most of those who have devoted themselves to the question. The Saqaliba
dwell in the north, whence they have spread westwards.
The Saqaliba are divided into several different peoples who war among themselves and
have kings. Some of them belong to the Christian faith, being of the Jacobite sect, while the
others are pagans and have no scripture and know nothing of divine law.
Among the different peoples who make up this pagan race, there is one that in ancient
times held sovereign power. Their king was called Majik 50 and they themselves were known
as Walltaba. 51 In the past, all the Saqaliba recognized their superiority, because it was from
among them that they chose the paramount ruler, and all the other chieftains considered
themselves his vassals.
Among the Saqaliba peoples of the second rank should be mentioned in the following order
the Istrana, whose king in our own times is called Basqlabij; then the Dulaba, whose present
king is called Wanjslaf. Next are the Namjin, whose king is called Gharand; among all the
Saqaliba these are the bravest and the best horsemen. After, come the Manabin, whose king
is called Ratimir; the Sarbln, 52 a Saqaliba people much feared for reasons that it would take
too long to explain and whose deeds would need much too detailed an account. They have no
particular religious affiliation.
Then there is the people called the Murawa and another known as the Kharwatln, and yet
another called the Sasln, then the Khashanln and the Baranijabln. 53 The names of some of
their kings which we have given are in fact dynastic titles.
The Sarbin, whom we have just mentioned, have the custom of burning themselves alive
when a king or chieftain dies. They also immolate his horses. These people have customs
similar to those of the Indians.
Earlier in this work, we briefly mentioned this while discussing the Caucasus and the
Khazars, we remarked that in the land of the Khazars there are, as well as the Khazars
themselves, a Saqaliba and a Rus population and that these last also immolate themselves.
These Saqaliba and other related peoples extend to the east rather than to the west. 54
The foremost of the Saqaliba kings is Aldayr, 55 whose domains include great cities and
much cultivated land, vast troops and countless armies. Muslim merchants make their way to
his capital with all kinds of merchandise.
After this, on the borders of this Saqaliba king, comes the king of Prague [ al-afragh ], who
has a gold mine, towns, extensive well-cultivated lands, numerous soldiers and a large
population. He is at war with the Byzantines, the Franks, the Bazkard 56 and other nations
besides; the hostilities among them are continuous.
Neighbouring this king is the king of the Turks. These people are the handsomest, the most
numerous and the most warlike of all. The Saqaliba comprise many different peoples and are
very far-flung, but this work is not the place for a detailed description and classification of
them.
I began by mentioning the king whose suzerainty has been recognized by all the other
rulers since ancient times, that is to say Majik, king of the Walltaba, who are the original,
pure-blooded Saqaliba, the most highly honoured, and take precedence over all the other
branches of the race.
Later, dissent having established itself among these peoples, their original organization was
destroyed and the various families formed isolated groups, each choosing a king, as we have
said above. An account of all these events would take too long, all the more so, since I have
already related them in a general way and with great detail in my earlier works, the
Historical Annals and the Intermediate History.
Mas‘udl (1966), §§ 905-9
21. Mas‘udl on the Rus 943
For Mas‘udi, see headnote to III: 14.
Sometime before the year 300/912-913, ships carrying thousands of men reached al-Andalus
by sea and raided the Atlantic coasts. The people of al-Andalus claimed that these enemies
were one of the nations of the majus, who came to attack them by sea every two hundred
years and that they reach their country by means of a channel which communicates with the
Ocean. This is not to be confused with the channel upon which is the bronze lighthouse. 58
Personally, I think - but God best knows the truth - that this channel communicates with the
Sea of Azov and the Black Sea 59 and that the attackers were those Rus we have already
mentioned, since they are the only people who sail those seas that communicate with the
Ocean.
Mas‘udl (1966), § 404
22. Mas‘udl on a Viking raid on the Caspian c. 913
For Mas‘udi, see headnote to III: 14.
The Rus are many nations, divided into different groups. One of them, the most numerous, is
the al-Ludh‘ana. They separate and travel far and wide, trading with al-Andalus, Rome,
Constantinople and the Khazars. 60 It was just after the year 300/912-913 that some 500 of
their ships, each manned by 100 men, entered the Strait of Pontus, which joins the river of
the Khazars. 61 Men are posted there by the king of the Khazars and from their well-fortified
positions, they are under orders to bar the way to anyone coming from the Sea of Pontus
(Black Sea) or by land adjoining any branch of the river of the Khazars that communicates
with the Sea of Pontus.
This is because the nomadic Ghuzz (Oguz) Turks set up their winter camps in these parts.
As the watercourses that link the river of the Khazars with the Strait of Pontus are often
frozen, the Ghuzz cross them with their horses, for there is so much water and it is frozen so
solid that there is no danger of its breaking under their weight and thus they raid the land of
the Khazars. On several occasions, the guards having failed to repel them, the king of the
Khazars has been compelled to march out against them in force, so as to prevent them from
crossing the ice, and thus he has saved his kingdom from invasion. In summer, there is no
way the Turks would be able to cross.
When the Rus vessels reached the Khazar checkpoint that guards the entrance to the strait,
they sent to ask the king for permission to cross his kingdom and make their way down the
river of the Khazars and so enter the Khazar Sea (Caspian Sea), which is also known by the
names of the barbarian peoples who live by it - the Sea of Jurjan, the Sea of Tabaristan, and
so forth, as we have already explained. The Rus contracted to give the king half of anything
they managed to pillage from the people along the shores of that sea. The ruler agreed to
their request and they entered the strait and reached the mouth of the river (Don), continuing
upstream until they reached the river of the Khazars. Then they went down the river, passed
through the city of Itil, and at last arrived at its mouth, where it flows into the Khazar Sea.
From the city of Itil to the mouth of the river [is a distance of ...]. 62 The river of the Khazars
is wide and the volume of water it carries very great. The Rus ships spread out across this
sea. Raiding parties then rode against Jil (Gilan), Daylam, Tabaristan and Abaskun on the
coast of Jurjan. They invaded the lands of Naphtha [Bilad al-naffata] and harried as far as
Azerbaijan - indeed the city of Ardabil in Azerbaijan is three days’ journey from the sea.
The Rus spilled rivers of blood, seized women and children and property, raided and
everywhere destroyed and burned. The people who lived on these shores were in turmoil, for
they had never been attacked by an enemy from the sea, and their shores had only been
visited by the ships of merchants and fishermen. Fighting ceaselessly with the people of Jil,
Daylam, the Jurjan coast, the frontier region of Bardha‘a, Arran, Baylaqan and Azerbaijan,
and also against a general sent by Ibn Abi al-Saj, the Rus pushed on to the Naphtha coast,
which is known by the name of Baku and forms part of the kingdom of Shirwan.
On returning from these expeditions, they took refuge among the islands only a few miles
off the Naphtha coast. At that time, ‘Ali ibn al-Haytham (reigned 913-917) was king of
Sharwan. Troops were marshalled. They embarked on boats and merchant ships and set out
for these islands. But the Rus turned on them and thousands of Muslims were killed or
drowned. The Rus stayed many months doing the deeds we have described, without any of
the peoples who live around this sea being able to oppose them. The inhabitants of these
shores, which are very densely populated, did what they could to prepare themselves and
remained in a state of high alert.
Gorged with loot and worn out with raiding, the Rus returned to the mouth of the Khazar
River and sent a message to the king of the Khazars together with the share of the spoils they
had promised him. This prince has no ships and his subjects are not familiar with the art of
navigation, otherwise it would have been a calamity for the Muslims.
Meanwhile, the Arsiyya and other Muslims who live in the lands of the Khazars learned
what had happened and said to the Khazars: ‘Let us do what we want to these people who
have sacked the lands of our Muslim brothers, spilt their blood and dragged their women and
children away into slavery.’
The king was unable to stop them, so he sent to the Rus and warned them that the Muslims
had decided to attack them. The Muslims gathered an army and went out to meet the Rus
going downstream. When the two armies were within sight of each other, the Rus left their
boats. The Muslims numbered about 15,000; they had horses and were well-equipped and
they were accompanied by a certain number of Christians resident in Itil.
The two sides fought for at least three days and God gave the victory to the Muslims. The
Rus were put to the sword or drowned. The number killed on the banks of the Khazar River
numbered 30,000. Some 5,000 managed to escape and crossed to the other side with their
boats to Burtas, 63 or else abandoned their boats and entrusted themselves to dry land. Some
of them were killed by the inhabitants of Burtas, others reached the Muslim Bulghars, who
massacred them. Some 30,000 were thus slain on the banks of the Khazar River. Since that
time, the Rus have never tried anything of the kind again.
Mas‘udl (1966), §§ 458-62
23. Miskawayh on the Rus raid on Bardha‘a 943
The Rus made a number of raids on the Caspian in the tenth century. The philosopher and historian
Miskawayh (932-1030) gives this vivid description, clearly based on eyewitness accounts, in his
Tajarib al-umam (Experiences of the Nations), a universal history. Bardha‘a (Barda) in
Azerbaijan was a large and important town, and the Rus may well have intended to settle
permanently there and use it as a base for trading and raids. Although Yaqut says they occupied
Bardha‘a for a year, it is more likely that the events described below lasted a few months at most.
In this year (332/943) the army of the Rus invaded Azerbaijan, attacked and occupied
Bardha‘a 64 and took its inhabitants captive.
They are a formidable nation, the men huge and very courageous. They do not recognize
defeat; no one turns back until he has killed or been killed. It is their custom for each to carry
his weapons and hang tools on his body, such as an axe, a saw, a hammer and similar
implements. The warrior fights with a lance and a shield. He carries a sword and a lance and
a knife like a dagger. They fight on foot, especially these invaders. They crossed the sea
[Caspian] which adjoins their country and sailed down to a great river called the River Kur,
which rises in the mountains of Azerbaijan and Armenia and falls into that sea. The Kur flows
through Bardha‘a, and people compare it to the Tigris.
When they reached Bardha‘a, they were confronted by Marzuban [ibn Muhammad ibn
Musafir]’s lieutenant, the governor of Bardha‘a, at the head of 300 Daylamites and about the
same number of Su‘luks and Kurds. He called the people to arms as well, and around 5,000
volunteers came forth to wage the jihad against the invaders. They didn’t know the strength
of the Rus, and thought they would behave like Greeks or Armenians. An hour after battle
was joined, the Rus launched an attack that routed the army of Bardha‘a. The volunteers and
the rest of the soldiers turned and fled. Only the Daylamites stood their ground; they were all
killed except for those mounted on horses. The Rus chased the fleeing soldiers to the town.
Everyone who could find a horse fled, leaving the town to be entered and occupied by the
Rus.
I was told by Abu al-‘Abbas ibn Nudar and many other witnesses how the Rus hurried into
the town and tried to calm the people, proclaiming: ‘There is no dispute between us on the
matter of religion; we only want to rule. It is our obligation to treat you well and yours to be
loyal to us.’ The armies nevertheless attacked them from all sides, but the Rus went out
against them and defeated them. When the Muslims attacked the Rus, the people of Bardha‘a
cried out Alldhu akbar!, and flung stones at the Rus. The Rus had ordered the people of
Bardha‘a not to take part in the battle between them and the government troops. This advice
was followed by peace-loving men from the upper classes, but the common people and rabble
could not control themselves. They showed their feelings by attacking the Rus when the
supporters of the government attacked.
After this had gone on for some time, the Rus issued a proclamation that none of the
inhabitants was to remain in the town, giving them three days to leave. The small number
who had mounts to carry them, their womenfolk and their children left, but the bulk of the
population remained. On the fourth day, the Rus put them to the sword, killing a huge
number, beyond counting.
After the massacre, they took captive over 10,000 men and boys with their womenfolk,
their wives and their daughters. They held the women and children in a fortress within the
city called Shahristan, which they had occupied, manned and fortified. Then they shut the
men into the congregational mosque, set guards at the doors and demanded that the men
ransom themselves.
A Christian civil servant named Ibn SanTun, who lived in the city, acted as negotiator
between the two sides. He made an agreement with the Rus that each man should be
ransomed for 20 dirhams. The more intelligent Muslims agreed to this arrangement, but the
rest did not, maintaining that Ibn SanTun was trying to imply that Muslims were of equal
value to poll-tax-paying Christians. Ibn SanTun therefore broke off negotiations. The Rus put
off their massacre, hoping to get at least this small amount. When it was not forthcoming,
they put them to the sword, and slew them to the last man. A few escaped through a narrow
conduit which conveyed water to the mosque, and some were able to buy their lives with
valuables they carried.
In some cases a Muslim agreed with a Rus to buy his life for a stated sum, and went with
the Rus to his house or shop. When he produced his wealth, and it turned out to be more than
the amount agreed, the Rus would not let him keep it, not even if it were many times the
agreed payment, but kept raising his demands till he had ruined the man. The Rus would only
give him safe conduct when he was convinced that he had nothing left, no gold, silver,
bedding or clothing. Only then would he let him go, giving him a piece of stamped clay as a
safe conduct. Thus the Rus gained a vast amount of booty. They kept the women and boys,
whom they raped and enslaved.
When the scale of the calamity was realized, and the Muslims in the different regions heard
about it, they demanded a combined expedition. Marzuban ibn Muhammad gathered his
troops, and called for a general enlistment. Volunteers joined him from all directions. He
marched at the head of 30,000 men, but in spite of the number of troops, he could not prevail
against the Rus or inflict any damage upon them. He attacked morning and evening, and
regularly met defeat. The battle continued to be waged like this for many days, and the
Muslims were always defeated.
When the Muslims found themselves unable to overcome the Rus, Marzuban took stock of
the situation, seeking some stratagem. Now it so happened that when the Rus took Bardha‘a,
they over-indulged in the fruit of which Bardha‘a produced numerous varieties. As a result,
an epidemic broke out among the Rus, as they come from a very cold country, where no
trees grow, and the little fruit which they have is imported from distant regions. When their
numbers began to decline, Marzuban decided on his stratagem, a night ambush. He ordered
his army to make a quick attack. When the Rus charged out, he and his followers would
pretend to be routed, encouraging the Rus to think they could annihilate the Muslim army.
When the Rus passed beyond the place where the ambush lay, Marzuban with his followers
would turn around and charge, shouting out an agreed signal to the soldiers lying in ambush.
When the Rus were trapped between their two forces, the Muslims would have them at their
mercy.
The morning after this scheme had been arranged, Marzuban with his followers marched
out and took up their positions. The usual course of events followed. Marzuban and the
Muslims fled, and were chased by the Rus until they had got beyond the ambush point, but
instead of turning around, the Muslims continued their flight.
Marzuban later told how when he saw his soldiers flee and that his desperate entreaties to
get them to turn around and fight were unavailing, because of their terror of the Rus, he
realized that the Rus, when they turned back, could not fail to notice the ambush, which
would in consequence be destroyed. ‘So,’ he said, ‘I turned back, with my personal
attendants, my brother, my staff and my retainers, having made up my mind to die a
martyr’s death. Most of the Daylamites were then shamed into doing the same. We charged,
crying out the signal to the men lying in ambush. They sprang forth behind the Rus, fought
them bravely and killed 700 of them, including their commander. The survivors retreated to
the fortress in the town, where they had established their quarters and where they had stored
food and supplies, and held their captives and their loot.’
While Marzuban was besieging them, with no other plan than to reduce them by a
protracted siege, news reached him that Abu ‘Abd Allah Husayn ibn Sa‘Id ibn Hamdan had
entered Azerbaijan and reached Salmas. There he had joined forces with Ja‘far ibn Shakkuyah
the Kurd, who was at the head of the Hadayan tribes. Marzuban was therefore forced to
leave one of his officers to fight the Rus, along with 500 Daylamites, 1,500 Kurdish horsemen
and 2,000 volunteers. He himself went to Awran, where he met Abu ‘Abd Allah. An
insignificant engagement took place during a heavy snowfall. The followers of Abu ‘Abd
Allah, most of them Arabs, deserted him. He therefore made for one of the fortified cities,
but on the way received a letter from his cousin Nasir al-Dawla, informing him of the death
of Tuzun in Baghdad, and the desertion of Tuzun’s troops to himself, and of his determination
to descend with them to Baghdad in order to fight Mu‘izz al-Dawla, who had entered and
taken possession of the city after Tuzun’s departure upstream. He therefore ordered Abu ‘Abd
Allah to evacuate Azerbaijan and rejoin him, which he did.
The followers of Marzuban kept fighting and besieging the Rus until the Rus were
exhausted. In addition, the epidemic became even more severe. When one of them died they
buried him with his arms, clothes and equipment, along with his wife or another of his
women, and his slave, if he happened to be fond of him, as was their custom. After they left,
the Muslims dug up the graves and found a number of swords, which are in great demand to
this day for their sharpness and excellence. When their numbers were reduced, they left the
fortress in which they had established their quarters by night, carrying all the loot they could
on their backs, including gems and fine raiment, and burning the rest. They dragged the
women, boys and girls they wanted with them, and made for the Kur River, where the ships
in which they had arrived from their homeland lay in readiness with their crews, along with
300 Rus whom they had been supplying with portions of their booty. They embarked and
departed, and God saved the Muslims from them.
I heard amazing stories from eyewitnesses of the prowess of these Rus and their little
regard for the Muslim forces mustered against them. Thus there was a story current in the
region which I heard from many persons of how five Rus were assembled in a garden in
Bardha‘a with some captive women. One of them was a beardless youth with a fair face, the
son of one of their chieftains. When the Muslims found out they were there, they surrounded
the garden and a large number of Daylamite and others joined forces to fight these five. They
tried hard to take one of them prisoner, but it was not possible, for none of them would
surrender. The Rus killed many times their own number before they could be killed. The
beardless youth was the last survivor. When he saw that he was going to be captured, he
climbed a nearby tree and stabbed himself in vital organs until he fell dead.
Miskawayh (1921), 62-7
24. Istakhri on the Khazars and their neighbours c. 951
Little is known of Istakhri His name indicates that he came from Istakhr, ancient Persepolis, and it
is clear from references in his hook that he travelled to Sind, Transoxiana, Khurasan and other
places in the eastern Islamic world before settling in Baghdad, where he lived for many years. He
died in Samarkand. He was the author of a ‘Book of Roads and Kingdoms’, a descriptive
geography based on the Kitab suwar al-aqalim (Book of the Configuration of the Provinces) of
his slightly earlier predecessor Balkhi (d. 934). All of Balkhi’s works have perished, but we know that
he cast them as a commentary on a series of regional maps. Istakhri followed Balkhi’s general plan,
greatly expanding it and completing his work around 951. The account of the Khazars appears to he
composite from three different sources of different dates (indicated by Roman numerals).
i
Khazar is the name of a region [ iqlim ] and its capital is called Itil, which is also the name of
the river [Volga] which flows to it from [the territories of] the Rus and the Bulghars and
divides Itil into two parts. The larger part, west of the river, is called Itil, the other part is on
the east. The king lives in the western part, and in their language is called bak or bak. This
[western] part is about a farsakh long and a wall surrounds it, although some buildings are
outside it. The dwellings are felt tents, except for very few that are of clay. They have
markets and baths and many Muslim residents; it is said there are more than 10,000 Muslims.
They have about thirty mosques. The king’s palace is far from the riverbank, and is of baked
brick. No one but the king has a dwelling of baked brick. He does not permit anyone else to
build with it.
The wall has four gates. There is a gate leading to the river and one to the desert at the
back of the city. Their king is a Jew and it is said that his entourage numbers some 4,000
men. The Khazars are Muslims and Christians and Jews, and among them are a number of
idol worshippers. The smallest number are Jews and the largest Muslims and Christians, but
the king and his entourage are Jews.
The greater part of their manners and customs are those of the idol worshippers. A man
prostrates himself before another to show respect. Their legal rulings are peculiar to
themselves, following ancient usages that conflict with those of the Muslim, Jewish and
Christian religions.
The king has an army of 12,000 men. If one of the soldiers dies, another takes his place.
They are not paid regularly, but are given small amounts at long intervals. When there is war
or civil disturbance, he orders them to mobilize.
The revenues of this king derive from customs duties and tithes on the merchandise,
imposed, according to their own assessments, on every overland, sea and river route. The
people of every place and district must supply the king on a regular basis with whatever food
and drink and other such things he requires.
The king has seven judges, appointed from among the Jews, Christians, Muslims and idol
worshippers. If a lawsuit arises among the people, they make a judgement on it. The litigants
do not go to the king himself, they go to these judges. On the day of the judgement a
messenger passes between the judges and the king, informing him of what is happening, and
he sends his orders to them, which they then carry out.
This city has no villages, but their cultivated fields are scattered about. They go out in the
summer some 20 farsakhs to sow. They harvest some of the crop by the river and some from
the steppe, transporting the crop by wagon or by the river. Their principal dishes are rice and
fish.
The honey and wax that they export is brought to them from the regions of the Rus and the
Bulghars, and the same is true of the beaver pelts, which are exported throughout the world.
They are only found in the rivers that run through the territories of the Bulghar, the Rus and
Kiev [Kuyaba], and as far as I am aware, nowhere else.
The eastern half of Khazar is inhabited by most of the merchants and the Muslims and their
warehouses. The western half is reserved for the king and his army and the khulais 65 Khazars.
The language of the Khazars is not the same as that of the Turks and Persians; it is
unrelated to the language of any other nation. 66
As for the river Itil, we have been told that it originates near Khirghiz territory and flows
between the lands of the Kimaks and the Ghuzz (Oguz), forming the border between them.
Then it turns west above Bulghar, then returns east, flowing past the Rus, then past the
Bulghars, then the Burtas. Then it returns to its course and flows into the Khazar Sea
(Caspian). It is said that more than seventy streams branch out from this river, while the
main course flows by the Khazars until it falls into the sea. It is said that if its waters were
gathered into a single river, its upper reaches would be greater than the Jayhun (Oxus). The
abundance and force of its waters are so great that when it reaches the sea it flows into it for
the distance of two days’ [sail], and the sweetness and freshness of its water allow it to freeze
during the winter. Its colour can be clearly distinguished from the colour of the sea.
ii
The Khazars have a city called Samandar between it [Itil] and Bab al-Abwab (Darband). It has
many gardens; it is said that there are more than four thousand vineyards towards the border
with Sarir [Avars]. Their principal fruit is the grape. There are Muslim inhabitants and they
have mosques. Their buildings are of wood, woven together, and they are domed.
Their king is a Jew, related to the king of the Khazars. Between them and the border with
Sarir is two farsakhs. There is a truce between them and the lord of Sarir.
The people of Sarir are Christians. It is said that their throne, which is gold, once belonged
to a king of Persia, and when his rule came to an end it was brought to Sarir 67 by one of the
Persian kings. I have heard that it was one of the sons of Bahrain Chubln. Kingship has
remained among them down to our own day. It is also said that this throne was made for one
of the Khusraws over many years.
There is a truce between the Sarir and the Muslims.
I know of no concentration of people in Khazar territory aside from Samandar.
The Burtas are a nation on the borders of the land of the Khazars. There is no other nation
between them. They are a people scattered along the valley of the Itil.
The Khazars do not resemble the Turks. They have black hair. There are two kinds. One
kind is called Qara Khazar (Black Khazars); they are dark brown, inclining to black, as if they
were a kind of Indian. The other kind is white and exceptionally good-looking.
The slaves of the Khazars are idol worshippers, who allow their children to be sold and
enslave each other. The Jews and Christians who live among them, like the Muslims, are not
permitted by their religion to enslave one another.
Nothing is produced in the land of the Khazars for export to other regions except for
isinglass [ghara ].
As for the mercury and honey and wax and beaver pelts and other skins, they are imported
to the Khazars.
The Khazars and their neighbours dress in long coats and tunics. They make no clothing
themselves. It is imported from the regions of Jurjan, Tabaristan, Armenia, Azerbaijan and
the Byzantine empire.
As for their political system and government, their most powerful man is called the khdqdn
Khazar. He is more exalted than the king of the Khazars, yet it is the king of the Khazars who
appoints him. When they want to appoint this khdqdn, they take this man and strangle him
with a piece of silk until he is on the point of death. Then they ask him, ‘How long do you
wish to reign?’ He replies, ‘Such and such number of years.’ If he dies before the time
expires, [fine]; if not, he is executed when he reaches the designated year.
The khaqanate can only be held by a member of a well-known clan. The khdqdn has no
power to command or forbid. Nevertheless, he is held in great respect and anyone who comes
into his presence must make a full prostration. No one but an elite group, such as the king
and those of his standing, can approach him. The king only enters his presence on special
occasions; when he does, he rolls in the dust, prostrating himself, then stands at a distance
until given permission to approach.
The khdqdn is brought out only if some calamity occurs. The Turks and the unbelievers
dare not look upon him; they turn away and do not fight him [?], out of reverence for him.
When he dies and is buried, everyone who passes his tomb dismounts and prostrates himself.
A man remounts only when some distance from his tomb.
Their obedience to their king [khdqdn] reaches such a pitch that when one of their
important men is condemned to death, the king does not have him publicly executed. He
orders him to kill himself and he goes to his dwelling and kills himself.
Ill
The khaqanate is confined to a well-known clan, which possesses neither political power nor
wealth. When it is the turn of one of them to rule, he is appointed irrespective of his
condition. I was told by someone I trust that he saw a young man selling bread in the market
and they said that when the khdqdn died, he was the worthiest to succeed to the khaqanate.
He was, however, a Muslim, and only a man who professes Judaism can become khdqdn. The
throne and the golden canopy [ qubba ] which they have are only set up for the khdqdn. When
he appears in public his tents are pitched above the tents of the king, and his dwelling in the
town is higher than the dwelling of the king.
The Burtas, Bashkirs and Pecenegs
Burtas is the name of a region. The people live in scattered wooden houses.
The Bashkirs [Bashjirt] are of two sorts. One inhabits the farther reaches of Ghuzz
territory, behind Bulghar; it is said that they number some 2,000 men. They occupy a well-
defended territory in the forests, where no one can get at them. They are under the authority
of the Bulghars. The other Bashkirs border the Pecenegs, that is, the Turkish Pecenegs on the
Byzantine border.
The Bulghar language is like the Khazar language. The Burtas have a different language. In
the same way, the language of the Rus is not like the language of the Khazars and the Burtas.
Bulghar
Bulghar is the name of a city. The inhabitants are Muslim and in the city is a congregational
mosque. Nearby is another city, called Suwar, which also has a congregational mosque. A
man who used to preach there informed me that the number of people in these two cities
amounts to around 10,000. They have wooden dwellings in which they take refuge during
the winter. In the summer they scatter, living in felt tents.
The preacher told me that the night there is so short in summer that a man cannot travel
more than a farsakh. In the winter the day is short and the night long, to the point that the
day in winter is like the summer nights.
The Rus
There are three sorts of Rus. One sort lives near Bulghar and their king dwells in a city called
Kiev; it is larger than Bulghar. Another sort live further away; they are called Slovenes
[Salawlya]. And there is a sort called Arthanlya; their king lives in Artha and the people come
to trade in Kiev.
It has been reported that no stranger has ever entered Artha, because they kill any stranger
who sets foot in their country. They descend the rivers to trade and say nothing about their
affairs or their merchandise. They allow no one to accompany them or enter their country.
From Artha are brought black sable pelts and lead. 68
The Rus are a people who burn their dead. Slave girls are burned with the wealthy of their
own volition.
Some men shave their beards and some plait them.
Their dress is a short coat, while the dress of the Khazars, Bulghars and Pecenegs is a long
coat.
These Rus trade all the way to the Khazars and also to Byzantium and Greater Bulgharia,
which borders Byzantium to the north. These people are very numerous. Their power is so
great that they have levied tribute on the lands neighbouring Byzantium. The people of Inner
Bulgharia are Christians. 69
Istakhri (1870), 220-26
25. Mas‘udi on the fur trade 956
For Mas‘udi, see headnote to III: 14. This passage is from Mas‘udi’s Kitab al-tanbih wa’l-ishraf
(Book of Notification and Revision), completed in 956. This and The Meadows of Gold and
Mines of Precious Gems are the only works of Mas‘udi’s to survive. The Book of Notification and
Revision is an abridgement and update of the Meadows of Gold, and contains a number of
important additions.
The river of the Khazars [Volga] passes by the town of Itil, the present capital of the Khazar
kingdom. The former capital was Balanjar. The waters of the Burtas River flow into the river
of the Khazars. Burtas is the name of a numerous Turkish people who live between
Khwarazm and the kingdom of the Khazars, but who are grouped with the Khazars. Large
merchant ships ply this river, laden with the products of the land of Khwarazm and other
countries. The pelts of black foxes are exported from Burtas. They are the most sought after
and expensive of furs. There are several kinds: red, white - which has the same value as mink
[fanak] - and that called khalanji. The least valuable is the kind called ‘arabi. Black furs are
found nowhere but in this country and neighbouring lands. The rulers of non-Arab peoples
delight to wear these furs. They make bonnets and sleeveless tunics of them, and it is the
black furs that command the highest price.
This fur is exported to the region of Bab al-Abwab (Darband), Bardha‘a and other places,
such as Khurasan. Black furs are often exported to the north, the land of the Saqaliba, because
the Burtas are near northern lands. From there they are exported to the lands of the Franks
and to al-Andalus. Many of these black and red furs are then exported to the Maghrib, which
has given rise to the belief that they originate in al-Andalus and the lands of the Franks and
Saqaliba.
The nature of these furs is warm and dry; extremely warm as is shown by the bitterness of
the flesh of the animals they come from. Their hair retains more heat than that of any other
animal. The humours it contains resemble those of fire, both containing a comparable
mixture of warm and dry. They are an excellent garment for those of delicate health and for
the elderly.
The caliph Mahdi [reigned 775-785], during a stay at Rayy, conducted an experiment to
see which was the warmest of furs. He took a number of flagons of water and stoppered
them with tufts of different sorts of furs. This took place during a year of intense cold and
deep snow. In the morning he had the flagons brought to him. All were frozen solid except
for the one stoppered with black fox fur. He thus learned which fur was warmest and driest.
Mas‘udi (1894), 63
26. Ibrahim ibn Ya‘qub on northern Europe 965
Ibrahim ibn Ya‘qub al-Isrd’ili al-Turtushi was a Jewish merchant from Tortosa. In 965, the year the
Khazar empire was destroyed by the Rus of Kiev, Ibrahim travelled through northern Europe. In
Mainz he was astonished to find that dirhams struck in Samarkand in 913 and 914 were circulating
in the markets, and that pepper, ginger and cloves from the Indies were available. He was received
at the court of Otto I in Magdeburg, where he learned something of the Slavic principalities
bordering Frankish lands. Most interesting are his accounts of Mainz, Prague and Cracow; these are
the earliest known mentions of these important cities. His references to the ‘Bulqar’ [Bulghar] are to
the Danube Bulghars, by now Christian, rather than to the Volga Bulghars visited by Ibn Fadlan. The
complete account of Ibrahim’s travels has not survived. Qazwini (1203-1283) preserves the material
on European cities in his Athar al-bilad wa akhbar al-‘ibad (Monuments of the Countries and
Histories of their Inhabitants), while Abu ‘Ubayd al-Bakri (1040-1094) preserves the Slavic
material translated here, in his Kitab al-masalik wa’l-mamalik (Book of Roads and Kingdoms),
written in 1068.
Mainz
Mainz [Maghanja] is a very large city, partly inhabited and partly cultivated fields. It is in
the land of the Franks, on a river called the Rhine [Rln]. Wheat, barley, rye, grapevines and
fruit are plentiful.
Dirhams are in circulation there, struck in Samarqand in the years 301 and 302/914 and
bearing the name of the director of the mint. [Ibrahim ibn Ya‘qub] of Tortosa said: ‘I think
these coins were struck during the time of the Samanid ruler Nasr ibn Ahmad. It is
extraordinary that one should be able to find, in such far western regions, aromatics and
spices that only grow in the Far East, like pepper, ginger, cloves, nard, costus and galingale.
These plants are all imported from India, where they grow in abundance.’
Schleswig
Schleswig [Shalashwiq] is a very large city, on the coast of the ocean. Inside it are many
springs of sweet water. The inhabitants worship Sirius, except for a small number of
Christians. [Ibrahim ibn Ya‘qub] of Tortosa relates: ‘They gather together for a religious
festival to honour the gods, at which they eat and drink. Those that intend to sacrifice an
animal set up a pole in front of their house from which they suspend a piece of the animal
whose sacrifice they are offering: beef, mutton, goat or pig. In this way everyone can see
how they plan to honour the gods.’
Schleswig is poor in grain and the climate is bad. The inhabitants mostly eat fish, which are
plentiful there.
When too many children are born, they throw the surplus into the sea to save the cost of
raising them.
[Ibrahim ibn Ya‘qub] of Tortosa also says: ‘Women take the initiative in divorce
proceedings. They can separate from their husbands whenever they choose. Both men and
women use a kind of indelible cosmetic to enhance the beauty of their eyes.’
And he also said: ‘There is no uglier song than the groans that come out of their throats. It
is like the baying of hounds, only worse.’
The Saqaliba are the descendants of Madhay, son of Yafith (Japheth) and they dwell in the
north-west.
Ibrahim ibn Ya‘qub al-lsra’lll says:
‘The country of the Saqaliba extends from the eastern Mediterranean to the north Atlantic.
The tribes of the north dominate them and now live among them. They are of many different
kinds. They were once united under a king named Makha, who was from a group of them
called Walltaba. 7 This group was of high status among them, but then their languages
diverged, unity was broken and the people divided into factions, each of them ruled by their
own king.
‘At the present time they have four kings: the king of the Bulqars (Bulghars); Boreslav,
king of Prague and Bohemia and Cracow; Mieszko, king of the north; and Nakon, who rules
the farthest west.
‘The country of Nakon is bordered on the farthest west by the Saxons [Saksun] and some
Norsemen [Murman]. His country has low prices and many horses, which are exported to
other places. They are well-armed, with shields, helmets and swords.
‘From Burgh (Fargh) to Mayllyah is ten miles and from [there?] to the bridge is fifty
miles. It is a wooden bridge, a mile long. From the bridge to the fortress of Nakon is around
40 miles, and it is called Grad, which means ‘large fort’. Facing Grad is a fort built in a
freshwater lake. This is the kind of place where the Saqaliba build most of their forts, in
swampy meadows with thick foliage. They trace out a circular or square space the size they
want their fort to be, and then dig a trench along the perimeter and heap up the earth into a
rampart, which they then reinforce with planks and logs, until the walls of the fort are the
height they require. They make a gate wherever they want and build a wooden bridge
leading to it.
‘From the fort of Grad to the Surrounding Sea is eleven miles. No army can penetrate the
lands of Nakon without great difficulty, because the country is all marshy, thickly forested
and muddy.
‘As for the country of Boreslav, from the city of Prague to the city of Cracow is a journey
of three weeks; its length is comparable to that of the country of the Turks.
‘The city of Prague is built of stone and lime. It is the principal trading city. The Rus and
the Saqaliba go there from Cracow, to trade, and so do Muslim merchants from the lands of
the Turks, as well as Turks and Jews, with mathaqil al-marqatiyya. They carry away slaves,
tin and various kinds of furs.
‘Their country is the best in the north, the richest in provender. There a man can buy
enough flour for a month for a qinshdr ; 5 and barley to feed a riding animal for forty days is
sold for a qinshdr. Ten chickens are sold among them for a qinshdr.
‘In Prague are made saddles and bridles and the leather shields used in their countries.
‘In Bohemia are made small lightly-woven kerchiefs 76 like nets, embroidered with
crescents, which have no practical use. The value of ten of these kerchiefs is always
equivalent to one qinshdr. They trade and exchange them, and have receptacles full of them.
They constitute wealth, and the most expensive things can be purchased with them, wheat,
slaves, horses, gold and silver and everything else.
‘It is surprising that the people of Bohemia are brown, with black hair; blonds are rare
among them.
‘The road from Madhinburgh (Magdeburg? Merseburg?) to the country of Boleslav [to] 78
and from it to the fort of Qaliwa (Calbe) is ten miles, and from it to Nub Grad (Novigrad) is
two miles. It is a fort built of stone and lime, and it is on the Saale River [Slawah], into
which falls the River Bode. And from Nub Grad to Mallahat al-Yahud [‘The saltpans of the
Jews’, Salzmunde?] which is on the Saale River, is thirty miles. From there to the fort of
Burjln (Wurzen), which is on the River Mulde [Muldawah] [...] and from it to edge of the
forest is twenty-five miles; from its beginning to its end is forty miles, through mountains
and forests. From it to the wooden bridge over the mud is about two miles. From the end of
the forest the city of Prague is entered.
‘As for the country of Mieszko, it is the most extensive of their countries. It abounds in
food and meat and honey and cultivated fields. His taxes are levied in mathaqil al-marqatiyya,
and they are used to pay the monthly salaries of his men, each of whom receives a fixed
number. He has 3,000 shield-bearers. One hundred of his soldiers are the equal of 1,000. The
men are given clothing and horses and weapons and everything they require. If one of them
has a child, he is immediately assigned an allowance, whether it is male or female. When it
grows up, if it is male, he provides for its marriage and gives a dowry to the father of the
girl. If it is female, he has congress with her and gives a donation to her father. Dowries are
very important to the Saqaliba, and their customs concerning them are like those of the
Berbers.
‘If a woman has two or three daughters, they are considered a form of wealth. If a man has
two sons, it is a cause of poverty.
‘Mieszko is bordered to the east by the Rus and to the north by Prussia. The inhabitants of
Prussia live on the shore of the Surrounding Sea. They have their own language, and do not
know the languages of their neighbours. They are famous for their courage. If an army comes
against them, not one of them waits until his comrade joins him, but each man charges on his
own, striking with his sword until he is killed.
‘The Rus raid them in ships from the west.’
West of the Rus lies the City of Women. 79 They have fields and slaves, and they bear
children from their slaves. If a woman has a male child, she kills it. They ride horses and
devote themselves to war; they are brave and fierce. Ibrahim ibn Ya‘qub says: ‘The story of
this city is true; Otto, the king of the Romans, 80 told me so himself.’
To the west of this city is a tribe of the Saqaliba called the nation of Walltaba (Veleti). It is
in the scrublands of the country of Mieszko to the north-west. They have a great city on the
Surrounding Ocean. It has twelve gates and a harbour, with a revetment of wooden pilings. 81
They make war on Mieszko and are very courageous. They have no king and trade with no
one. Their judges are their old men.
As for the king of the Bulghars [Bulqarin], Ibrahim ibn Ya‘qub says:
‘I didn’t enter his country, but I saw his envoys in the city of Magdeburg when they were
sent to Otto the king. They were dressed in tight clothing, cinched with long belts which
were set with gold and silver studs. Their king is powerful, wears a crown and has secretaries
and officials and scribes, issues edicts and prohibitions, and maintains order as great kings do.
They have the knowledge of languages and they have translated the gospels into Slavonic.
They are Christians.’
Ibrahim ibn Ya‘qub said:
‘The king of the Bulghars converted to Christianity when he raided the lands of the
Byzantines and when he laid siege to the city of Constantinople, until its king conciliated him
and gave him splendid gifts. Among the things he bestowed upon him was the hand of his
daughter, and it was she who led him to become a Christian.’
The author [Bakri] said:
‘Ibrahim’s statement indicates that his conversion to Christianity took place after
301/912. 8 Another source says that those among them who converted to Christianity did so
in the days of King Basil and they remain Christian to this day.’
Ibrahim said:
‘Constantinople lies south of the Bulghars and the Pecenegs border them to the east and
north. West of it is the Gulf of Venice, which is a gulf of the Mediterranean between Italy 83
and Constantinople. It [the Mediterranean] surrounds the coasts of Rome and Lombardy and
ends at Aquileia. All these places form a single peninsula, surrounded by the Mediterranean
on the south, the Gulf of Venice to the east and north, with only one opening, to the west.
The Saqaliba inhabit the shores of this gulf from its beginning in the eastern Mediterranean,
with the Bulghars dwelling in the east and other Saqaliba in the west. Those western Saqaliba
are the bravest, and the people of those regions seek their protection and fear their power.
Their country is mountainous, with difficult roads. To sum up, the Saqaliba are brave and
aggressive. If it were not for their disunity and the fact that they are widely dispersed and
divided into many tribes, no nation could stand against them.
‘They live in fertile, well-provisioned countries, devoting themselves to agriculture and
other occupations, in which they surpass all the other peoples of the north. They export their
products by land and sea to the Rus and to Constantinople.
‘The major tribes of the north speak the language of the Saqaliba because they have
mingled with them. These are such tribes as the Germans, the Hungarians, 84 the Pecenegs,
the Rus and the Khazars.
‘In all the northern countries famines occur, not because of lack of rainfall and continuous
drought, but because of over-abundant rain and continual damp. Drought is not devastating
for them, because he who is afflicted by it does not fear it, since their country is so damp and
the cold so great.
‘They sow during two seasons of the year, in summer and in spring, and harvest two crops.
Their principal crop is millet.
‘The cold, even when it is intense, is healthful to them, but the heat destroys them. They
are unable to travel to the country of the Lombards because of the heat, for the heat there is
fierce and they perish. Health among them is only achieved when the elements that make up
their constitutions are frozen; when these elements melt and boil, the body desiccates and the
result is death.
‘Two diseases afflict them all; scarcely anyone escapes at least one of them. The diseases
are erysipelas [rayhdn al-humra ] and haemorrhoids. They refrain from eating chicken,
asserting that it exacerbates erysipelas, but they eat beef and goose, both of which agree with
them.
‘They wear ample robes, although the ends of their sleeves are narrow.
‘Their kings sequester their women and are very jealous of them. A man can have twenty
or more wives.
‘The most common trees in their country are apple, pear and peach.
‘They have an unusual bird; its back is green and it can imitate the sounds made by men
and animals. It has been found [ ] they hunt it and it is called saba 85 in the language of the
Saqaliba. They also have a fowl called tatrci (wood-cock). Its meat is good and its call can be
heard from the tree-tops at the distance of afarsakh. The most common are of two kinds, one
black and one varicoloured; the latter more beautiful than a peacock.
‘They have different kinds of wind and string instruments. They have a wind instrument
more than two cubits long, and an eight-stringed instrument whose sounding board is flat,
not convex.
‘Their drinks and wine are made out of honey.’
Miquel (1966), 1059-60, 1062
Qazwini (1848-9), 388, 404
Bakri (1968), 154-84
Kowalski (1946)
27. Muqaddasi on exports from Bulghar 985-990
Muqaddasi’s dates are unknown; his only surviving work, Ahsan al-taqasim fi ma‘rifat al-aqalim
(The Best Divisions for the Knowledge of the Provinces) was composed between 985 and 990.
He follows Ibn Khurradadhbih, Istakhri and Ibn Hawqal in the school of descriptive geography, and
represents the culmination of their work. This list of items exported from Bulghar is the fullest we
have. A number, like ‘fish teeth’, originated in the far north. Some are Arabic and some are Persian;
the latter have an asterisk.
From Khwarazm:
sable [ sammur ]
grey squirrel [ sinjdb ]
ermine [ *qaqun ]
mink \fanak] 86
fox
marten [ dallah ]
beaver [*khazbust]
spotted hare [-kharkush]
goatskins [ *bazbust ]
wax
arrows
birch wood f k tuz]
tall fur caps [ qalanis ]
isinglas [ghara samak, fish glue]
fish teeth [probably walrus and narwhal tusks]
castoreum oil [ "khazmiyan ]
amber
tanned horse hides [*kimakht]
honey
hazelnuts
falcons [i ayuz ]
swords
armour
maple wood [? khalanj ]
Saqalib slaves
sheep
cattle
All these come from Bulghar, and they also bring grapes and much oil.
Muqaddasi (1906), 324-5
28. Muqaddasi on the land of the Khazars 985-990
For Muqaddasi, see headnote to III: 27.
Beyond the Caspian Sea [ al-buhayra , ‘the lake’] is a large region called Khazar, a grim,
forbidding place, full of herd animals, honey and Jews. To the north is the barrier of God and
Magog, [to the south-west] it borders the territories of the Byzantines. Two rivers flow
through it, and most of the towns are located on their banks. Both rivers flow into the lake
[Caspian]. The mountain of Binqishlah is on its border towards Jurjan. The capital is Itil.
These are its principal towns: Bulghar, Samandar, Suwar, Baghand, Qayshawa, Khamlij,
Balanjar, Bay da’.
Itil, the large capital city, is situated on a river of the same name [Volga, or Itil] which
flows into the lake [Caspian]. I apply the same name to the area on the opposite bank of the
river, towards Jurjan. The city is surrounded by trees, which grow even within the [walls].
Muslims are numerous here. Their king used to be Jewish, and made laws [ rusum ] and
appointed judges [from the communities of] Muslims, Jews, Christians and idol-worshippers.
I was told that Ma’mun f invaded them from Jurjanlyya, and subdued them, forcing their
king to adopt Islam. Later I heard that an army of the Byzantines, called Rus, invaded them
and conquered their lands. 88
The city is walled, and the houses are scattered about within. It is about the size of Jurjan,
or larger. Their dwellings are tents of wood and felt, and large kharkdhdt [yurts]; a few
buildings are made of adobe. The palace of the ruler [ sultan] is of fired brick and has four
gates, one facing the river, accessible by boat, another leading to the steppe. It is a poor,
infertile place, bereft of [agricultural?] prosperity and without fruit. They make barley bread
and eat it with fish.
Bulghar is divided into two parts. The houses are made of wood and reeds. The night there
is short. The mosque is in the marketplace. Since becoming Muslims, they have been going
on raids. The town is on the river Itil, closer to the lake [Caspian] than is the capital.
Suwar is also on this river. The houses here are kharkdhdt. They have many fields and bread
is plentiful.
Khazar is on another river, towards [the district of] Rihab, built on just one bank of the
river 90 . It is larger and pleasanter than the other towns we have mentioned. People had
moved from the town to the lake shore; but have now returned to the town. Formerly
Jewish, they have become Muslims.
Samandar is a large town on the lake, located between the river of Khazar [Volga] and Bab
al-Abwab [Darband]. Most of the dwellings are tents. The majority of the people are
Christians; they are poor, welcoming strangers, but thievish. The town is bigger than Khazar,
with gardens and many vineyards. Their buildings are of wood interlaced with reeds, the
roofts touch each other. There are numerous mosques.
The Caspian Sea is deep, dark and gloomy, and sailing on it is riskier than on the two seas.
Its only useful product is fish. Their boats are waterproofed with pitch, large and held
together with nails. The islands are uninhabited. It is possible to circumambulate it, if
someone should wish to do so, because the rivers that flow into it are not wide, except for
the Kur and the Samur [nahr al-malik ]. Some islands in the lake are wooded, with marshes
and animals. There is one island from which madder is gathered. The barrier of Gog and
Magog is about two months’ travel beyond the lake.
MuqaddasI (1906), 355, 360-62
29. Ibn Hawqal on the trade in eunuchs 988
Ibn Hawqal was bom in Nisibis (around 920), and set out on his travels in 943; he was in North
Africa 947-951, then in Armenia and Azerbaijan in 955, Khwarazm in 969 and Sicily in 973. He
met Istakhri and with his permission took over his Book of Roads and Kingdoms and expanded it,
adding very valuable and vivid details on agricultural and craft production and other economic
matters. He made several redactions of the text of his Kitab surat al-ard (Book of the
Configuration of the Earth), the first before 967, the last, and definitive, version in 988. Like his
predecessor, his book is an extended commentary on a series of maps of administrative districts.
A well-known export from al-Andalus is slaves, boys and girls captured in France and Galicia,
as well as eunuchs from the Saqaliba. All the Saqaliba eunuchs in the world come from al-
Andalus. They are castrated near this country. The operation is performed by Jewish
merchants. The Saqaliba are descended from Japheth. Their country is vast and extends over
a very great length. Raiders from Khurasan reach them through the territory of the Bulghars.
They are led in captivity to that province, their manhood left intact, their bodies unmutilated.
The territories of the Saqaliba are immense. The arm of the sea which extends from the
Ocean into the lands of Gog and Magog crosses their territory all the way to a point west of
Trebizond, then to Constantinople, thus dividing it into two halves. One of these, throughout
all its length, is raided by the warriors of Khurasan, who live on its borders, while the
northern regions are invaded by raiders from al-Andalus via Galicia, France, Lombardy and
Calabria. Captives from these regions are still plentiful.
Ibn Hawqal (1938), I, 109
30. Ibn Hawqal on the fur trade and the Rus attack on Itil and
Bulghar 965
For Ibn Hawqal, see headnote to III: 29.
The principal foods [at Itil] are rice and fish. The honey, wax and furs exported from their
country come from the territories of the Rus and the Bulghar. This is also the case with the
beaver pelts, exported throughout the world, for they are only found on the northern rivers
of the territory of the Rus, the Bulghar and Kiev [Kubaya; Kuyaba]. The beaver pelts sold in
Spain come from the rivers in the lands of the Saqaliba, which flow into the gulf 91 [ khalij ] in
the lands of the Saqaliba, of which we have already spoken. Most of these furs, and especially
those of the best quality, that are found in the lands of the Rus are actually brought from the
country of Gog and Magog; they are sometimes sold to the Bulghars.
This was the state of affairs until the year 358/969, the date the Rus destroyed Bulghar and
Khazaran. 92 The beaver pelts and best-quality furs are sometimes exported to Khwarazm,
despite the fact that the Khwarazmians often attack both the Bulghars and the Saqaliba,
organizing raids against them and taking captives.
The Rus always trade directly with Khazaran, where they are constrained to pay ten per
cent duty on all merchandise.
Ibn Hawqal (1938), II, 393
31. Ibn Hawqal on Khwarazm and its trade 988
For Ibn Hawqal, see headnote to III: 29.
Khwarazm is the name of a district [ iqlim ] completely separate from Khurasan and
Transoxiana. It is entirely surrounded by desert. To the north and west it is bounded by the
lands of the Ghuzz (Oguz), while to the south and east it is bordered by Khurasan and
Transoxiana.
It is a vast region, with extensive districts and many cities. It marks the limit of cultivation
along the Oxus; beyond there are no cultivated lands until the place is reached where the
river falls into the Aral Sea [ al-Buhayra ]. The district straddles both banks of the Oxus. The
capital is located on the northern bank, but on the southern there is an important city called
Jurjanlya, the largest in Khwarazm after the capital. It is the commercial centre for the Ghuzz
and the place whence the caravans set out for Jurjan. These caravans used in former days to
depart regularly for Khazaria and Khurasan.
The cites of Khwarazm, aside from the capital, are the following: Darghan, Hazarasp,
Khiwa, Ardakhusmithan, Safardiz, Nuzwar, Karduran, Khwash, Kurdur, Qaryat Faratakln,
Madhminiya, Mazdakhqan and Jurjanlya.
Its capital was known as Kath Darkhash, and is now fallen into ruins; the population has
been dispersed to neighbouring places, such as Jurjanlya. The city of Kath had a citadel which
was flooded by the river at the same time as the rest of the city, and the same fate befell the
congregational mosque, which was built against the wall of the citadel. There is no trace of it
left.
A river called the Kharakrur ran through the centre of the city and the market, for the city
was built on both its banks. The site was about one third of afarsakh long and the same in
width. Its markets were crowded and commerce flourished at all times.
Khwarazm is a fertile country, producing many kinds of grain and fruit, but not walnuts. Its
cotton and woollen textiles are exported throughout the world. Its people are very wealthy
and very manly and brave. They are the inhabitants of Khurasan most given to emigration
and travel. Every large city in Khurasan has a large number of Khwarazmian inhabitants.
Their language is unique to them: no other like it is spoken in Khurasan. They wear short
tunics and their bonnets [qaldnis] are formed in a characteristic size and style that stands out
among the peoples of Khurasan. They show great courage in their battles with the Ghuzz.
They have no gold mines, silver deposits or precious gems in their country. The wealth of the
inhabitants comes from trade with the Turks and buying herd animals and, above all, slaves
from the lands of the Saqaliba and the Khazars, and Turkish slaves from the borderlands, and
furs, such as mink \fanak], sable, fox, grey squirrel and other kinds of pelts. These are stored
up by them, and the slaves are housed there as well.
Their merchants enter the lands of Gog and Magog to collect beaver and other pelts. It is
very rare for a man with a beard to go there; most of the merchants who go there are clean¬
shaven, without beards or moustaches. The adult men of the land of Gog and Magog are
beardless. When a man with a full beard enters their country, the king, who is of the line of
Gog and Magog, orders his beard plucked out. After his beard has been plucked, the king
treats him very well and allows him to enrich himself.
Ibn Hawqal (1938), II, 477-8, 481-2
32. Ibn Hawqal on the Rus destruction of Itil 965
For Ibn Hawqal, see headnote to III: 29.
At the present time, the Rus have left nothing to the Bulghar, Burtas and Khazars but a few
worthless ruins. They fell upon them and looted everything, obtaining in their territories
more than they could have hoped for. I have been told that many of the Khazars have
returned to Itil and Khwarazm with the support of the Sharwan Shah Muhammad ibn Ahmad
al-YazIdl (reigned 956-981), who helped them with his army and his people. They are hoping
to make a pact with him to live under his authority and be assigned lands in which to dwell.
In Jurjan in the year [3]58/969, or thereabouts, I asked a man about the vineyards and he
said: ‘There is not enough left of a vineyard or garden worth giving to a begger. If a leaf
were left on a branch, one of the Rus would carry it off. Not a grape, not a raisin remains in
that country.’
Ibn Hawqal (1938), II, 397-8, 393
33. Birum on dog sleds, skates and silent barter c. 1030
This extract, from Biruni’s Tahdid nihayat al-amakin li-tashih masafat al-masakin
(Determination of the Coordinates of Positions for the Correction of Distances between
Cities), occurs in a discussion of the system of the Seven Climes [iqlim] into which some Arab
geographers divided the habitable world. Biruni (973-1050) explains that the seventh, the farthest
north, has a maximum daylight of sixteen hours. He then describes the region to the north of
Bulghar; inhabited by the Finno-Ugrian Isu [Ibn Fadldn’s Wisu, the Ves] and Yura [Yughra],
mentioned by both Ibn Fadldn and Abu Hamid.
Beyond that [the Seventh Clime], the land is sparsely populated and the inhabitants live like
wild beasts. The furthest region [to the north] is that of the Yura, whose villages can be
reached from Isu [Wisu] in twelve days. Men travel from Bulghar in wooden sleighs and
reach Isu in twenty days. They load [the sleighs] with provisions and either drag them over
the surface of the snow by hand or use dogs to pull them. They also use skates made of bone,
with which they can travel long distances quickly.
The people of Yura exchange their products by placing them on the ground in a certain
area and then retiring, like shy, wild things. The same thing is done by people from the land
of Sri Lanka when they barter cloves.
Biruni (1962), 108
34. The ‘Enclosed Nations’ of the far north 1118
This account of a strange people of the far north encountered by the Iughra, or Yughra (the Yura of
Ibn Fadlan and the Arab geographers), occurs in The Russian Primary Chronicle, or Povest’
Vremennykh Let (The Tale of Bygone Years), written in 1116. Janet Marten observes that
according to D. S. Likhachev , the following account was composed in 1118, during the third revision
of the Laurentian chronicle, by Prince Mstislav, who heard the tale in 1114 when he was in Staraia
Ladoga (Marten (1986), 53, n. 92). The prince then quotes a passage from the pseudo-Methodius,
the late-seventh-century author of a popular eschatological work that is one of the earliest sources for
the story of Alexander’s Wall Here the ‘unclean peoples’ penned behind the wall will issue forth,
heralding the end of the world, simultaneously with the unleashing of eight tribes from Yathrib
(Medina).
I wish at this point to recount a story which I heard four years ago, and which was told to me
by Giuriata Rogovich of Novgorod: ‘I sent my servant [or slave],’ said he, ‘to the Pechera, a
people who pay tribute to Novgorod. When he arrived among them, he went on among the
Iughra. The latter are an alien people dwelling in the north with the Samoyeds. The Iughra
said to my servant, “We have encountered a strange marvel, with which we had not until
recently been acquainted. This occurrence took place three years ago. There are certain
mountains which slope down to an arm of the sea, and their height reaches to the heavens.
Within these mountains are heard great cries and the sound of voices; those within are
cutting their way out. In that mountain a small opening has been pierced through which they
converse, but their language is unintelligible. They point, however, at iron objects, and make
gestures as if to ask for them. If given a knife or an axe, they supply furs in return. The road
to these mountains is impassable with precipices, snow and forests. Hence we don’t always
reach them, and they are also far to the north.’”
Then I said to Giuriata, ‘These are the peoples shut up by Alexander of Macedon. As
Methodius of Patara says of them, “He penetrated the eastern countries as far as the sea
called the Land of the Sun, and he saw there unclean peoples of the race of Japheth. When he
beheld their uncleanness, he marvelled. They ate every nauseous thing, such as gnats, flies,
cats and serpents. They did not bury their dead, but ate them, along with the fruit of
abortions and all sorts of impure beasts. On beholding this, Alexander was afraid lest, as they
multiplied, they might corrupt the earth. So he drove them to high mountains in the regions
of the north, and by God’s commandment, the mountains enclosed them round above save for
a space of twelve ells. Gates of brass were erected there, and were covered with
indestructible metal. They cannot be destroyed by fire, for it is the nature of this metal that
fire cannot consume it, nor can iron take hold upon it. Hereafter, at the end of the world,
eight peoples shall come forth from the desert of Yathrib, and these corrupt nations, which
dwell in the northern mountains, shall also issue forth at God’s command.’”
Cross and Sherbowitz-Wetzor (1953), 184-5
35. MarwazI on the Rus c. 1130
Sharaf al-Zamdn Tahir Marwazi was a native of Merv (Mary), in what is now Turkmenistan and
served the Seljuk sultan Malik-shdh (reigned 1073-1092) and his successors as a physician, until his
death around 1130. The following selections are from his zoological encyclopedia TabaT al-
hayawan (The Nature of Animals), which also includes miscellaneous anthropological information
in its initial chapters. The first paragraph is copied almost verbatim from Ibn Rusta, but the
information in the second is unique in the Arabic sources, as is the reference to the Rus acceptance
of Christianity, then Islam. Minorsky points out in a note that before his conversion to Christianity in
988, Vladimir (reigned 980-1015) investigated other faiths and sent a ten-man embassy to the king
of the Bulghars, but Islam was rejected because ‘drinking wine was a joy of the Rus’.
The Rus live in an island in the sea, its extent being a distance of three days in either
direction. It has woods and forests, and is surrounded by a lake. They are very numerous, and
look to the sword to provide them with a livelihood and profession. When one of their
menfolk dies, leaving daughters and sons, they hand his property over to the daughters,
giving the sons only a sword, for they say: ‘Your father won his property by the sword; do
you imitate him and follow him in this.’
And in this way their education was effected, until they became Christians, during the year
300/912. 93 When they entered [the fold of] Christianity, the faith blunted their swords, the
door of their livelihood was closed to them, they returned to hardship and poverty, and their
livelihood shrank. Then they desired to become Muslims, that it might be lawful for them to
make raids and holy war, and so make a living by returning to some of their former
practices. They therefore sent messengers to the ruler of Khwarazm, four kinsmen of their
king; for they had an independent king called Vladimir, just as the king of the Turks is called
khaqan and the king of the Bulghars yiltawar. 94 Their messengers came to Khwarazm and
delivered their message. The Khwarazmshah was delighted at their eagerness to become
Muslims, and sent someone to them to teach them the religious laws of Islam. So they were
converted.
They are strong and powerful men, and go on foot into far regions in order to raid; they
also sail in boats on the Khazar Sea [Caspian], seizing ships and plundering goods. They sail
to Constantinople in the Sea of Pontus, in spite of the chains in the gulf. Once they sailed into
the Sea of Khazar and became masters of Bardha‘a for a time. Their valour and courage are
well known, so that any one of them is equal to a number of any other nation. If they had
horses and were riders, they would be a great scourge to mankind.
Minorsky (1942), 36
36. Marwazi on Bulghar and the far north c. 1130
For Marwazi, see headnote to III: 35.
In the northern direction lies the country of Bulghar; it lies between the west and the north,
inclining towards the Pole, and is three months distant from Khwarazm. These [people] have
two cities, one called Suvar and the other called Bulghar; between the two cities is a distance
of two days’ journey, along the bank of a river and through very dense forests, in which they
fortify themselves against their enemies. The trees are mostly khadang , 95 but there are also
hazels. They are Muslims, and make war on the infidel Turks, raiding them, because they are
surrounded by infidels. There are in their forests fur-bearing animals, such as grey squirrels,
sable and so on. The latitude of their territory is very considerable, so much so that in
summer their day is extremely long and their night extremely short, so short in fact that the
interval between twilight and dawn is not sufficient for cooking a pot [of meat].
At a distance of twenty days from them, towards the Pole, is a land called Isu [Wisu], and
beyond this a people called Yura; these are a savage people, living in forests and not mixing
with other men, for they fear that they may be harmed by them. The people of Bulghar
journey to them, taking wares, such as clothes, salt and other things, in contrivances drawn
by dogs over the heaped snows, which [never] clear away. It is impossible for a man to go
over these snows, unless he binds on to his feet the thigh bones of oxen, and takes in his
hands a pair of javelins which he thrusts backwards into the snow, so that his feet slide
forwards over the surface of the ice; with a favourable wind [?] he will travel a great
distance by the day. The people of Yura trade by means of signs and dumb show, for they are
wild and afraid of [other] men. From them are imported excellent sable and other fine furs;
they hunt these animals, feeding on their flesh and wearing their skins.
Beyond these are a coast-dwelling people who travel far over the sea, without any
[definite] purpose and intention; they merely do this in order to boast of reaching [such and
such a remote] locality. They are a most ignorant and stupid tribe, and their ignorance is
shown by the following. They sail in ships, and whenever two [of their] boats meet, the
sailors lash the two together, and then they draw their swords and fight. This is their form of
greeting. They come from the same town, perhaps from the same quarter, and there is no
kind of enmity or rivalry between them; it is merely that this is their custom. When one of
the parties is victorious, they [then] steer the two ships off together. In this sea is the fish
whose tooth is used in hafting knives, swords and suchlike. 96 Beyond them is a Black Land
which cannot be crossed. As for the sea route, the voyager sailing towards the Pole reaches a
part where there is no night in the summer and no day in the winter; the sun rotates visibly
over the land for six months, circling the horizon like the revolution of a millstone; the whole
year consists of one day and one night.
Minorsky (1942), 34-5
37. Marwazi on the Saqaliba c. 1130
For Marwazi, see headnote to III: 35.
The Slavs are a numerous people, and between their territories and the territories of the
Pecenegs is a distance of ten days, along steppes and pathless country with thick trees and
[abounding] in springs. They inhabit these forests. They have no vines, but possess much
honey. They tend swine, and burn their dead, for they worship fire. They grow mostly millet,
and have a drink prepared from honey. They have different kinds of pipes, including one two
cubits long. Their lute is flat and has eight strings but no peg-box, while its pegs are level.
They have no great wealth. Their weapons are javelins and spears, and they have fine
bucklers. Their head chieftain is called suwit, and he has a deputy called shrih. > The king has
[riding] beasts and on their milk he feeds. The town in which he resides is called Khazrat,
where they hold a market for three days in every month. Among them the cold is so severe
that they dig deep underground dwellings which they cover with wood, and heat with the
steam [produced by the burning] of dung and firewood. There they remain during their
winter season. In the winter the Majghari (Magyars) raid them, and as a result of their
mutual raidings they have many slaves.
Minorsky (1942), 34-6
38. Yaqut on Hungary 1228
Yaqut al-Rumi (1179-1229) finished the first draft of his famous geographical dictionary, the
Mu‘jam al-buldan (Lexicon of Countries), in Aleppo in 1224, and completed the definitive edition
in 1228. While in Aleppo he met some Bashghird soldiers serving in the army of the Hungarian king,
and questioned them about their country. The story of the conversion of their fore-bears to Islam by
emissaries from the Volga Bulghars is also found in the Anonymi gesta Hungarorum, composed
between 1196 and 1203. For Yaqut, see also p. xxxiv.
When I was in the city of Aleppo, I ran across a group of men called Bashghird. Their hair
and faces were very brown, and they were studying to become jurisconsults in the Hanifite
school of law. Seeking to know something of their country and condition, I questioned one of
them, and he told me:
‘As for our country, it is beyond Constantinople, in one of the kingdoms of the Franks,
called Hunkar (Hungary). We Muslims are subjects of their king, posted on the frontiers of
his country in about thirty villages, each of which could be a little town, except that the king
of Hunkar does not allow us to wall them, for fear that we might rebel. We live in the middle
of a Christian country. North of us is the country of the Saqaliba, while south of us lies the
country of the Pope, that is Rome. The Pope is the leader of the Franks; he is the
representative [ na’ib ] of the Messiah, occupying the position of the Commander of the
Faithful [caliph] among the Muslims. His authority is absolute among them over everything
to do with religion.
‘To our west lies al-Andalus, and to our east the lands of the Byzantines, Constantinople
and its dependencies.
‘Our language is the language of the Franks, and our dress is like theirs. We serve with
them in the army and go on raids with them against all nations, for they only fight the
enemies of the Muslims.’
I asked him how they came to be Muslims, living in the middle of an unbelieving country.
He said:
‘I have heard a number of our older people say that a long time ago seven men from
Bulghar came to our country and dwelt among us. They pointed out our errors to us and led
us to the true path of the religion of Islam, and so God guided us, and thanks be to God, we
all accepted Islam and God opened our hearts to the faith. And we have come to this country
to become faqihs and when we return to our country, its people will honour us and give us
authority in religious matters.’
Then I asked him: ‘Why do you shave off your beards like the Franks do?’
He said: ‘The soldiers are clean shaven, and we are armed and accoutred in the same way
as the Franks. Non-military personnel do not have to shave.’
I asked him: ‘How many stages are there between our country and yours?’
He said: ‘From here to Constantinople, around two and a half months, and from
Constantinople to our country, about the same.’
Istakhri says in his book that from Bashghird to Bulghar is twenty-five stages, and from
Bashghird to the Pecenegs, who are a kind of Turk, ten days.
Yaqut (1866), I, 469-70
39. Qazwini on Gog and Magog 1275
Zakariya ibn Muhammad ibn Mahmud al-Qazwini (1203-1283) wrote two extremely influential
hooks on mirabilia and popular cosmology, the Aja’ib al-makhluqat (The Wonders of Creation),
and the Athar al-bilad wa akhbar al-‘ibad (Monuments of the Countries and Histories of their
Inhabitants). The latter volume, from which the following selection is taken, was written in 1263
and revised in 1275. It is largely a compilation of earlier sources, including Yaqut, Abu Hamid al-
Andalusi and even Ibrahim ibn Ya‘qub. Qazwini arranged his material according to the system of
the Seven Climes, describing the important cities, geographical features and wonders in each clime
in vivid and simple Arabic.
Gog and Magog [Yajuj and Majuj] are two Turkish tribes, descended from Japheth [Yafith],
son of Noah - peace be upon him! They dwell to the east of the Seventh Clime.
Al-Shu‘bl relates that when Dhu al-Qarnayn (Alexander) came to the land of Gog and
Magog a huge crowd of people came before him, beseeching his help against Gog and
Magog. They said:
‘O Victorious King, beyond this mountain live nations whose number is known only to God.
They destroy our dwelling places and our crops and our fruits. They consume everything,
even the grass. Like wild beasts, they slaughter our herds. They even eat the vermin that
crawl on the earth. No other species multiplies like they do. Not one of them dies without
fathering a thousand children.’
Said Dhu al-Qarnayn: ‘How many tribes of them are there?’
They replied: ‘Only God knows their number. Those closest to us consist of six tribes:
Yajuj, Majuj, Tawll, Taris, Mansak and Kamada. Each of these tribes alone is as large as the
entire population of the rest of the earth. As for those farther away, we have no knowledge
of them.’
Dhu al-Qarnayn asked: ‘What do they eat?’
They replied: ‘Every year two fish swim across the sea to them. Each of the fish, from head
to tail, is ten days’ march. In the spring they feed on crocodiles, snakes and sea serpents, for
which they beseech the heavens, as other people invoke the heavens for rain. When their
invocations are answered, they flourish and grow fat; otherwise they grow thin and weak.’
Dhu al-Qarnayn asked: ‘What do they look like?’
They said: ‘Short torsos, wide faces. Their height is half that of a man of medium stature.
They have fangs like wild beasts, and claws instead of fingernails. Hair grows down their
backbones. They have two enormous ears, one of which is exceedingly hairy on the outside,
but hairless inside, the other hairy inside but hairless outside. They wrap themselves in one,
and sleep on the other. Their bodies are so hairy that they are completely hidden. They call
out to one another like pigeons and bay like dogs. They copulate like animals, wherever they
meet.’
It is related in some sources that Gog and Magog pick away at the Barrier until they can
almost see the sun behind it. Then a voice cries out: ‘Enough! Tomorrow you will break
through!’ and they desist. During the night All-Powerful God restores the Barrier to what it
was. The next day they dig and tunnel away again, until they are almost on the point of
breaking through. Then the voice once more rings out: ‘Desist! Tomorrow you shall break
through, if God so wills!’
Only a short time remains before the day comes when they return to their task and break
through and descend upon mankind. They will drink up all the water of the earth until it is
completely desiccated. Men will take refuge in their hill-top fortresses, while they conquer
the earth and destroy all they find. When no one is left, they will shoot an arrow into the sky
and it will fall back reddened with something like blood, and they will say: ‘We have
overcome the people of the earth, and now we have reached the people of the heavens.’ Then
All-Mighty God will send them a worm called naghaf. It will enter their ears and nostrils and
kill them. [The Prophet] - prayers and peace be upon Him - said: ‘By He who holds my soul
in His hand, the beasts of the earth will grow fat on their flesh!’
Qazwini (1960), 618-19
40. Marco Polo on dog sleds and the Land of Darkness 1293
Marco Polo (1254-1324) is the best-known of medieval travellers, but it is impossible to establish an
exact chronology of his journeys. The following is a clearly second-hand description of the territory
of a Tatar chief called Kaunchi, Marco Polo’s ‘Conci’, a name Yule says was borne by two men,
both descendants of Genghis Khan. One was the lord of Siberia, the other chief of the White Horde,
whose grazing lands lay north-east of the Caspian. The latter sent an embassy to Siyah-kuh, north of
Tabriz, in 1293, where Marco Polo could have encountered his informant. The fur he calls ‘erculin’
has not been identified, and he greatly exaggerates the size of the sled dogs.
You find in their country 98 immense bears entirely white, and more than 20 palms in length.
There are also large black foxes, wild asses and abundance of sables; these creatures, I mean
from the skins of which they make those precious robes that cost 1,000 bezants each. There
are also vairs in abundance; and vast multitudes of the Pharaoh’s rat, on which the people
live all the summer time. Indeed they have plenty of all sorts of wild creatures, for the
country they inhabit is very wild and trackless.
And you must know that this king 99 possesses one tract of country which is quite
impassable for horses, for it abounds greatly in lakes and springs, and hence there is so much
ice as well as mud and mire, that horses cannot travel over it. This difficult country is
thirteen days in extent, and at the end of every day’s journey there is a post for the
lodgement of the couriers who have to cross this tract. At each of these post-houses they keep
some 40 dogs of great size, in fact not much smaller than donkeys, and these dogs draw the
couriers over the day’s journey from post-house to post-house, and I will tell you how. You
see the ice and mire are so prevalent, that over this tract, which lies for those thirteen days’
journey in a great valley between two mountains, no horses (as I told you) can travel, nor
can any wheeled carriage either. Wherefore they make sledges, which are carriages without
wheels, and made so that they can run over the ice, and also over mire and mud without
sinking too deep in it. Of these sledges indeed there are many in our own country, for ’tis just
such that are used in winter for carrying hay and straw when there have been heavy rains
and the country is deep in mire. On such a sledge then they lay a bearskin on which the
courier sits, and the sledge is drawn by six of those big dogs that I spoke of. The dogs have
no driver, but go straight for the next post-house, drawing the sledge famously over ice and
mire. The keeper of the post-house, however, also gets on a sledge drawn by dogs, and
guides the party by the best and shortest way. And when they arrive at the next station they
find a new relay of dogs and sledges ready to take them on, while the old relay turns back;
and thus they accomplish the whole journey across that region, always drawn by dogs.
The people who dwell in the valleys and mountains adjoining that tract of thirteen days’
journey are great huntsmen, and catch great numbers of precious little beasts which are
sources of great profit to them. Such are the sable, the ermine, the vair, the erculin, the black
fox and many other creatures from the skins of which the most costly furs are prepared. They
use traps to take them, from which they can’t escape. But in that region the cold is so great
that all the dwellings of the people are underground, and underground they always live.
There is no more to say on this subject, so I shall proceed to tell you of a region in that
quarter, in which is perpetual darkness.
Concerning the Land of Darkness
Still further north, and a long way beyond that kingdom of which I have spoken, there is a
region which bears the name of Darkness, because neither sun nor moon nor stars appear, but
it is always dark as with us in the twilight. The people have no king of their own, nor are
they subject to any foreigner, and live like beasts.
The Tartars however sometimes visit the country, and they do it in this way. They enter
the region riding mares that have foals, and these foals they leave behind. After taking all the
plunder that they can get they find their way back by help of the mares, which are all eager
to get back to their foals, and find the way much better than their riders could do.
These people have vast quantities of valuable peltry; thus they have those costly sables of
which I spoke, and they have the ermine, the erculin, the vair, the black fox and many other
valuable furs. They are all hunters by trade, and amass amazing quantities of those furs. And
the people who are on their borders, where the Light is, purchase all those furs from them;
for the people of the Land of Darkness carry the furs to the Light country for sale, and the
merchants who purchase these make great gain thereby, I assure you.
The people of this region are tall and shapely, but very pale and colourless. One end of the
country borders upon Great Rosia. And as there is no more to be said about it, I will not
proceed, and first I will tell you about the province of Rosia.
Rosia is a very great province, lying towards the north. The people are Christians, and
follow the Greek doctrine. There are several kings in the country, and they have a language
of their own. They are a people of simple manners, but both men and women very
handsome, being all very white and [tall, with long fair hair]. There are many strong defiles
and passes in their country; and they pay tribute to nobody except to a certain Tartar king of
the Ponent, whose name is Toctai; to him, indeed, they pay tribute, but only a trifle. It is not
a land of trade, though to be sure they have many fine and valuable furs, such as sables, in
abundance, and ermine, vair, erculin and fox skins, the largest and finest in the world [and
also much wax]. They also possess many silver mines, from which they derive a large amount
of silver.
Yule and Cordier (1903), II, 479-87
41. Ibn Battuta on travel in the Land of Darknesss 1332
Ibn Battuta (1304-1377) claims to have made a flying visit to Bulghar in 1332 ‘in order to see for
myself what they tell of the extreme shortness of the day there’. He gives no details of the journey
and says nothing about Bulghar itself except that he set out from Bishdagh (Pyatigorsk) and
reached Bulghar ten days later, which is clearly impossible, for the distance between them is 800
miles. On this basis, Janicsek has shown the section to be a fiction, almost certainly included in the
account to show that he has encompassed the world (Janicsek (1929), 791-800). For the same
reason, perhaps hoping to rival that other great traveller, the Alexander of romance, he wished to
enter the Land of Darkness, but was dissuaded by the difficulty of the journey. He did visit northern
lands, however, and spoke with fur traders who had visited the far north. From them he learned of
the use of dog sleds in the arctic regions.
I wanted to enter the Land of Darkness. This can be done by passing beyond Bulghar, a
journey of forty days. But I gave up my plan because of the great difficulty of the journey,
and the small profit it offered. One can only travel to this country by small carts [‘ajala]
pulled by large dogs, for this wilderness is covered with ice and the feet of men and hooves
of animals slip and slide, while dogs have claws and their paws do not slip on the ice. Only
rich merchants enter this wilderness, men who each have forty or more carts, filled with
food, drink and fire-wood. There are no trees, stones or dwellings to be found. Dogs who
have already made the trip a number of times guide the travellers. The price of such an
animal can reach more than 1,000 dinars. The wagon [‘araba] is attached to its neck and three
other dogs are yoked to it. It is the leader, and the other dogs follow it with the wagon.
When it halts, they halt too. The owner of this animal never beats it or reprimands it. When
it is time to eat, the dogs are fed before the men. If this is not done, the lead dog gets angry
and runs away, leaving his master to perish.
When the travellers have journeyed for forty days, they make camp near the Land of
Darkness. Each of them puts down the merchandise he has brought, then retires to the
campground. The next day they return to examine their merchandise and find set down
beside it sable [ sammur ], squirrel [ sinjab ] and ermine [qaqun] pelts. If the owner of the
merchandise is satisfied with what has been placed beside his goods, he takes it. If not, he
leaves it. The inhabitants of the Land of Darkness might add to the number of pelts they have
left, but often take them back, leaving the goods the foreign merchants have displayed. This
is how they carry out commercial exchanges. The men who go to this place do not know if
those who sell and buy are men or Jinn, for they never glimpse anyone.
Ermine is the most beautiful kind of fur. An ermine [coat] will fetch 1,000 dinars in India,
equivalent to 250 Maghribi gold dinars. The furs are pure white and come from a little
animal a span in length. The tail is long and is left on the pelt as it is in life.
The sable is cheaper than the ermine. A sable fur [coat] costs 400 dinars or less. One of the
properties of these furs is that they repel fleas. This is why the governors and great men of
China attach one of these furs to the neck of their fur coats. The merchants of Persia and Iraq
do the same.
Defremery and Sanguinetti (1854), II, 99-102
42. Ibn Battuta on a winter journey to New Sarai 1332
Ibn Battuta set out from Constantinople during the winter of 1332 for the Mongol camp at New
Sarai, founded by Berke Khan (reigned 1255-1267), 225 miles north of Astrakhan. His description
of winter travel in the north is unrivalled. This translation is slightly adapted. See also headnote to
III: 41.
This was in mid-winter, and I wore three fur coats and two pairs of trousers, one quilted. I
wore woollen boots on my feet, and on top of those a pair of boats of the kind called bulghari,
which are made of horse hide lined with bear fur. I would wash with hot water next to the
fire and the drops that fell instantly froze. When I washed my face the water would freeze in
my beard, and when I shook it something like snow would fall out. When my nose ran, it
would freeze on my moustache. Because of the weight of the clothes I was wearing I couldn’t
mount a horse, and had to be helped into my saddle by my companions ... we journeyed for
three nights on the river Itil [Volga] and its tributaries, which were frozen solid. When we
needed water, we cut chunks of ice and put it in a cauldron until it melted, then used this for
drinking and cooking.
Defremery and Sanguinetti (1854), II, 445-6
43. Ibn Fadl Allah al-‘UmarI on Siberia and Alexander’s Tower
1342-1349
Ibn Fadl Allah al-‘Umari (1301-1349) was an important official in Mamluk Egypt, rising to the
position of Head of Chancery. He probably composed his Kitab al-masalik al-absar fi mamalik al-
amsar (Book of the Paths of the Eye Through the Kingdoms of the Countries) after he left
office in 1342. In his day, Bulghar was evidently in the grazing lands of the Kipcaq Turks.
Among the most renowned cites of the Kipcaq is Bulghar, where the shortest night lasts 4 x /i
hours. Badr al-DIn Hasan Ruml assured me that when he was there he questioned Mas‘ud,
who among the Bulghars held the office of official timekeeper for the prayers, and received
this answer: ‘I learned by precise observation and by means of astronomical instruments that
the shortest night was exactly 4V6 hours. As for the town of Afikun, where I also made
observations, I found that the shortest night was 3Vi hours, that is, an hour less than in the
city of Bulghar. The distance between these two towns is twenty days’ march.’
Beyond Afikun is Sibir and Abir (Siberia), then comes Julman (Coliman River basin).
Leaving Julman and heading east, one comes to Karakorum and from there to Khata
(Cathay), which forms part of China, where the Great Khan resides.
Heading west from Julman one arrives at the land of the Rus, then that of the Franks and
the peoples who inhabit the shores of the Western Ocean (Atlantic).
The countries of Sibir and Julman border Bashkird. In Bashkird is a Muslim qadi who is
greatly esteemed. In the lands of Sibir and Julman the cold is excessive and the mountains,
plains and houses are covered with snow every year for six consecutive months. There is very
little grazing for animals. These peoples inhabit the farthest north, and are rarely visited by
travellers. They have few means of subsistence, and if what is reported is true, each of them
collects whatever animal bones he can find and boils them, deriving what broth he can from
them. The next day he puts them back on the fire, boiling the same bones seven times, until
every bit of sustenance has been obtained from them. Although these people live such
miserable lives, the slaves who come from there are the most beautiful in the world. Their
faces are perfectly white, their features charming and their eyes are blue. These details have
been supplied by Badr al-DIn Hasan Ruml who has visited these countries.
Shaykh ‘Ala’ al-DIn ibn Nu‘man adds that merchants do not go farther than the town of
Bulghar and the province of Julman. Merchants from Julman travel as far as Yughra, which is
situated far to the north. Beyond Yughra there is no trace of habitation except a tall tower,
built by Alexander, beyond which nothing is found but the Darkness. The traveller, asked
what he meant by this expression, answered that this land consists of deserts and mountains
where eternal cold and snow hold sway and where the sun never shines, where no plant
grows and no animal lives. These lands border a Black Sea shrouded with fog where the sun
never appears.
Quatremere (1838), 277-81
Appendix 1
The Khazars c. 650-c. 965
The Khazars were Turkic-speaking pastoral nomads, closely related to the Bulghars. The
Khazar khaqanate, which lay astride one of the main invasion routes between the Eurasian
steppe and the Byzantine empire, was the most powerful organized state in the steppes north
of the Caucasus. With the Caucasus protecting their back, their territory lay between the
Caspian and the Black Seas, and extended across the Ukrainian steppe as far west as Kiev and
to the borders of what are now Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan in the east. To the north, at the
confluence of the Volga and Kama rivers, lay the lands of their tributary vassals, the
Bulghars. Based in their capital of Itil at the mouth of the Volga, the Khazars controlled
access to both the Black and the Caspian Seas, creating a commercial network that spanned
much of Eurasia. They ruled over, or received tribute from, some thirty-eight different
peoples - including Ghuzz Turks, Alans, Caucasian Huns, Avars, Finno-Ugrian speakers and
Slavs - and were powerful enough to enforce a pax Khazarica, a forerunner of the thirteenth-
century pax Mongolica. During the ninth and first half of the tenth century trade flourished on
the Eurasian steppe and in European Russia towns, and trading posts sprang up along the
major rivers. The overland route to China was open, and we know from Ibn Khurradadhbih
that Jewish merchants from Europe were travelling along it, passing through Itil on their
way (see p. 111).
Originally the Khazars practised a form of Shamanism, venerating the sky god Tengri and
natural phenomena like fire, thunder and lightning. Their warriors were buried with their
horses, weapons and food; excavations have revealed that young women and children,
probably slaves, were sometimes sacrificed with them.
The Khazars had a curious form of double kingship, in which a sacral ruler, the khdqdn (see
Appendix 2), was chosen from among the members of a royal clan, thought to possess qut, or
charismatic power. The khdqdn had a purely ceremonial role, while affairs of state were left
to a ‘king’, given various names in the Arabic sources, including bak or bak (beg), shad, and
yiligh. Istakhri describes the simulated ritual strangling of the khdqdn at his inauguration, his
auto-proclamation of the length of his reign, and the sanctity and ritual isolation of his person
(see pp. 156-7). The Khazar institution of sacral kingship strongly influenced the Rus; it was
also imitated by the Danube Bulghars and the Magyars, and traces can even be found among
the early Ottomans.
At some point in the early ninth century, the Khazar khdqdn and the military elite converted
to Judaism, although the circumstances and date of the conversion are unclear. (This has
been much discussed; the best account is still Dunlop (1954).) A passage in the Book of the
Khazars, written by the Spanish Jewish poet Yahuda ha-Levi in 1140, places the conversion
four hundred years earlier, around 740. Yet the detailed accounts of the eighth-century
Khazar wars in the Arabic chronicles never mention Jewish kings, which they surely would
have done if such had existed. Mas‘udi says the conversion of the khdqdn took place during
the reign of Harun al-Rashld (786-809), and this seems more probable. Although Christianity
had spread to some of the Caucasian peoples at the hands of Georgian and Armenian
missionaries, the conversion of the Khazars, or at least the Khazar ruling caste, was the first
major success of Abrahamic monotheism among the peoples of the steppe.
A chance discovery in 1999 at last provided a solid piece of evidence for the date of the
conversion when a Viking Age coin hoard, one of the largest ever found, was discovered in a
farmer’s field in Gotland. Called the Spillings Hoard, it contained 170 lb. (85 kg) of silver,
including 14,295 silver coins, of which 14,200 were dirhams. Among them was an imitation
dirham, dated to 838, with the inscription Musa rasul alldh (‘Moses is the Messenger of God’)
(see Kovalev (2005)). Four more coins from the same die and with the same slogan were also
found, along with two variants, one with the legend ard al-khazar (‘Land of the Khazars’), the
other bearing a rune-like trident, apparently a dynastic symbol. The first coins struck in the
Principality of Kiev in the tenth century, tributary to the Khazars, bear this device too, and it
has also been found scratched on stones. The ‘Moses’ coins show that Judaism was the official
religion of the Khazar empire in 838, but do not necessarily mean that conversion took place
that year. Issuing an imitation of an Islamic coin with such a provocative legend must have
been a response to some specific event, and as far as is known, no further coins bearing it
were struck. Whatever the reason, it is difficult not to relate the spread of Judaism in
Khazaria to the Radhanlya, the multilingual Jewish merchants who were very active in this
period and who travelled from the ‘Land of the Franks’ to China and back, crossing Khazar
territory en route (see Part III: 5 and 6).
The conversion of the ruling elite to Judaism did not affect the composition of the Khazar
state, which remained multiconfessional, multilingual and multinational. Muslims, Christians,
Jews and Shamanists lived and traded in Itil; each community had its own judges and
followed its own laws in its internal affairs. In 861, an attempt was made by the missionary
Slav brothers Cyril (Constantine) and Methodius to convert the Khazars to Christianity, when
they took part in a debate on the relative merits of Christianity and Judaism in the presence
of the Khazar khdqdn. The brothers were received politely and even succeeded in converting
200 of the khaqan’s entourage, but he himself declined the invitation to be baptized.
The active export trade and diversified internal economy of the Khazar empire were its great
strengths, and differentiated it from previous, more ephemeral, steppe empires. Just as the
population was extremely varied, so were its occupations: agriculture, viticulture, bee
keeping, stock rearing and crafts have all been identified by archaeologists, and are
confirmed by the few Arabic texts we possess. One telling detail reveals just how dominant
the Khazar khdqdns were during this period: the Byzantines considered them important
enough to merit a gold seal on diplomatic correspondence, weightier and more imposing than
those used for either the Pope or the Holy Roman Emperor himself (see Dunlop (1954), ix).
Appendix 2
The Rus
In 844, the year Sallam the Interpreter returned to Baghdad from his mission to Alexander’s
Wall, fifty-four square-rigged Rus longships sailed up the Guadalquivir and sacked Seville.
The savagery of the attack was unparalleled: the invaders put the city to the sword and
devastated its hinterlands, before finally being slaughtered by cavalry sent from Cordoba.
Nobody knew who they were, or where they had come from; the Andalusian chroniclers
simply called them majus. This word, familiar to us from the Magi of the Gospels, originally
referred to Zoroastrians, but came first to mean ‘fire worshippers’ and then to be almost
synonymous with ‘pagan’. It was a ninth-century eastern writer Ya‘qubl (d. 897), who
identified the majus that attacked Seville with the Rus in a little book composed around 880,
called Kitab al-buldan (The Book of Countries): ‘West of the city of Algeciras is a city named
Seville on a great river, which is the river of Cordoba. The majus who are called al-Rus
entered it in the year 229/844 and looted, pillaged, burned and killed’ (Ya‘qubl (1892), 354).
The earliest occurrence of the word Rus, however, is in Latin. The Annales Bertiniani record
the arrival, in the year 838, of an embassy from the Byzantine emperor Theophilus at the
court of the Holy Roman Emperor Louis the Pious at Ingelheim (see Nelson (1991), 44). They
were accompanied by a party of men called Rhos who bore a letter from Theophilus, asking
that they be given help to return to their homeland. They were unable to do so by travelling
through Byzantine territory because of ‘cruel and barbarous tribes of extreme savagery’,
probably a reference to the Magyars. Louis questioned the men and discovered that they
were Swedes, and that their ruler was called chacan, an old Turkic regal title, rendered in
Arabic as khdqctn, meaning ‘Lord of the Steppe’. It was borne by the sacral ruler of the Khazar
Turks who, from their capital of Itil on the Volga, controlled access to the Caspian and Black
Seas (see Appendix 1). Their use of the title shows that the Rus were in the orbit of Khazar
power, despite the vast distance separating Gorodishche (most probably the ‘home’ to which
they were trying to return) from Itil. The men who sacked Seville and the merchants who
passed through Khazar territory on their way to Baghdad were both Rus; we know them
today as Vikings.
Louis was not pleased at discovering the Scandinavian origins of his guests, and placed the
men under arrest, writing to Theophilus to discover more about their origins and motives. He
suspected them of being spies, sent to assess the wealth and vulnerability of his capital.
Indeed, he had every reason to be concerned, for the Atlantic coasts of the Frankish empire
had been systematically assaulted by Viking raiders since early in the reign of his father
Charlemagne. Every port, from Hamburg south, had been sacked, sometimes repeatedly. The
Vikings sailed up the major rivers, looting churches and monasteries, and slaughtering the
inhabitants of villages and towns or carrying them off into slavery. Nevertheless, Louis’s
suspicions of the Swedes in this instance were probably unfounded. The Vikings who harried
the British Isles and the Atlantic coasts of Europe between 793 and 850, effectively stripping
Europe of its silver supply, were overwhelmingly Danes, with a sprinkling of Norwegians.
During these years the Swedish Vikings instead raided and traded in Gotland and along the
Baltic coast.
In Atlantic Europe, the Vikings were able to harvest wealth accumulated by others. In
Baltic lands and what is now European Russia, there were as yet no monasteries or cities to
sack - yet even in these unpromising regions, enterprising men could grow rich. The system
of rivers and portages that crisscrossed European Russia extended east to the Black and the
Caspian Seas, and these in turn provided access to the markets of Byzantium and the Abbasid
caliphate, with their insatiable demand for slaves and growing demand for furs. The Rus set
about taking control of these highways to the lucrative markets of the east. During the eighth
and ninth centuries, they established fortified trading posts along the major rivers and
organized the collection and export of the natural products of the forest regions, particularly
honey, wax, furs and slaves. These were sold in eastern markets for silver dirhams, hundreds
of thousands of which have been found in Russian and Baltic lands. The Rus also imposed
tribute on the population, a bewildering mixture of Finno-Ugric-, Baltic-and Slavic-speaking
peoples: forest dwellers, farmers and herdsmen. It was levied in furs; the Slavic word for
‘marten fur’ ( kuna ) is still used for the currency of Croatia, but the term goes back to the
ninth century.
The opening up of European Russia by Swedish Vikings was closely linked to the growth of
markets for slaves and furs in the great cities of Cordoba, Constantinople and Baghdad. The
Swedish trading city of Birka was founded around 750; Cordoba became the capital of the
Umayyad dynasty of al-Andalus in 756; Baghdad was founded in 763. Meanwhile the town of
Staraia Ladoga on the Volkhov River, probably founded at about the same time as Birka, was
the first Rus foothold in what is now Russia. A hoard of silver Islamic coins dating from about
790, and struck in North African and Andalusian mints, has been discovered there, and coins
from the same period have also turned up at Birka. Such discoveries show that Staraia Ladoga
was in contact with Islamic lands almost from the beginning of its foundation; conversely,
they confirm the Arabic sources which speak of products of the north, particularly Saqaliba
eunuchs and furs, reaching al-Andalus at a surprisingly early date.
In 860, the Rus somehow negotiated the rapids of the lower Dnieper with a large fleet and
attacked Constantinople, devastating the city’s suburbs. The next year, the apostles of the
Slavs Cyril (Constantine) and his brother Methodius tried unsuccessfully to bring them into
the Christian fold; although they failed, commercial relations were established between the
Rus and Constantinople. Trade agreements were hammered out with the Byzantines in 907
and 911, the texts of which have been preserved in The Russian Primary Chronicle (see Cross
and Sherbowitz-Wetzor (1953), 73-8; Page (1995), 97-100). By the time of Constantine VII
(reigned 945-959) the Rus were established in Kiev and had begun to meld with the Slavic
population. Just as the Danish and Norwegian Vikings were transformed into French-speaking
Normans, the Rus became Slavic-speaking Russians, giving their name to the country and
people that had absorbed them. With the conversion of Vladimir of Kiev to the Orthodox
faith in 986, the process of assimilation was complete.
Appendix 3
The Samanids
In the early ninth century, the Samanid dynasty succeeded in creating a huge state in
Transoxania, east of the Caspian Sea, with its capital in Bukhara. The Samanids included in
their domains practically all of the silver mines in the Islamic world, including Panshir in the
Hindu Kush. They held power in Central Asia from 819 to 1005, and after about 850
produced more than ninety per cent of the Islamic coins found in Russian, Baltic and
Scandinavian coin hoards.
The Samanids were famous for their wealth, their highly developed agricultural system
based on intensive irrigation and their excellent crafts. Their great cities, Samarkand,
Bukhara, Nishapur, Merv and Herat, were cultural and economic centres of the first rank.
Included in their domains was Khwarazm, a vassal state that played an important political
and commercial role in trade with the north. The Khwarazmians were great travellers,
traders and warriors. Ibn Hawqal says Khwarazmian communities were to be found in all
major trading cities and describes how merchants from Khwarazm ventured as far as the
lands of Gog and Magog, that is, north of Bulghar, in their search for the best-quality furs
(see III: 30). Ibn Fadlan mentions the presence of Khwarazmian women in Bulghar (see p.
43); Abu Hamid al-AndalusI found large contingents of Khwarazmian mercenaries in Hungary
in 1150 (see p. 78). Ibn Fadlan set out on the second leg of his journey to Bulghar from the
Khwarazmian capital of Kath, near modern Khiva in Uzbekistan.
The late Thomas Noonan attempted to quantify the number of silver dirhams that flowed
through European Russia from Khwarazm and Samanid Khurasan via Khazaria and Bulghar,
and he estimated that the Islamic world exported 100,000,000-200,000,000 whole dirhams
during the ninth and tenth centuries. The Khazars dominated the trade during the ninth
century; the Bulghars, during the tenth. Khazar revenues, derived from the ten per cent tax
on imports, therefore declined sharply in the tenth century, while those of Bulghar
correspondingly rose. The main trade route from the Islamic world to the Baltic clearly
shifted in the tenth century to Bulghar. Nevertheless, Bulghar continued to pay tribute to the
Khazars at the rate of one sable skin per household, even after the conversion of Almish, the
king of the Bulghars, to Islam, which probably took place around 910. A Persian source,
Gardizi, writing about 1050, says 500,000 hearths paid tribute to the king of the Bulghars.
The figure is impossibly high, but even reducing it to 50,000 would produce a very
substantial sum. These estimates are rough, but serve to indicate something of the scale of
the northern trade.
Around a third of the more than 300,000 dirhams that have turned up in Eastern European
coin hoards have been found in the Oka River basin, the natural route from Bulghar to Kiev
and Novgorod (Golden (1982), 93). This was the route followed in the twelfth century by
Abu Hamid on his journey from Bulghar to Hungary (see pp. 74-7).
Appendix 4
The fur trade
Fur was a highly valuable commodity in this period, as several of the texts included here
confirm. The upper reaches of the Kama (the hunting grounds of the Yura people, discussed
by Abu Hamid al-AndalusI on pp. 70-74) were rich in fur-bearing animals, particularly
beaver, and the hunter-gatherers in the subarctic and arctic lands even further north either
paid tribute in furs to the Bulghar king or traded them for beads and, probably, weapons if
they were beyond his jurisdiction. Muslim merchants who traded with the most northerly
peoples found them immune to silver coins and fearful of domination; the merchants could
only obtain their furs and other products, such as narwhal and sea lion ‘ivory’, by silent
barter. This region therefore marked the northern limit of the Islamic monetary economy.
The Arab geographers tell similar stories of silent barter in the islands of the Indonesian
archipelago and in the gold fields south of the Niger, demarcating the boundaries of Islamic
trading networks to the east and south respectively. It is striking how such remote peoples
were nevertheless incorporated into the networks and visited by intrepid traders. From their
strongholds in European Russia, the Rus too levied tribute on the northern hunter-gatherers,
Finno-Ugrian speakers, who lived in the northern forests and hunted as far north as the White
and Barentz Seas. Ibn Fadlan gives the names of two of these peoples besides the Yura
(Yughra): the Wisu (Ves) and the Aru.
Archaeologists have found characteristic blunt arrows used from the seventh to the thirteenth
centuries in northern Russia for hunting beaver, marten, ermine, squirrel and fox. Tipped
with a cylinder of bone, horn, metal or wood, the arrow stunned the animal without
damaging its skin until the hunter could reach it and kill it. A wide variety of traps were also
used, but these have left little archaeological record. Samoyed hunters in the nineteenth
century designed traps that would not tear the skins of the animals and destroy their market
value, and similar devices must have been used by early medieval trappers.
Sites where these blunt-tipped arrows have been found also yielded large numbers of
beads. Krutik, a Ves (Wisu) site in the Beloozero region, mentioned by R. N. Kovalev, yielded
491 imported beads. Hundreds of thousands of such beads, made of glass, amber, carnelian,
chalcedony, coral and other substances, have been found along with the bones of fur-bearing
animals at burial and other sites throughout northern Russia. Ibn Fadlan mentions that the
Rus brought beads to Bulghar, where they sold for a dirham each, a very substantial sum;
these must have been used to trade for pelts. Many of the beads found in graves came from
the Islamic world, and were probably made especially for trading purposes. Glass beads were
made in places like Staraia Ladoga and Kiev, and workshops where they were fabricated have
been found by archaeologists.
The scale of the fur trade was huge. In addition to the furs received by the Bulghar king in
tribute, middlemen - like the Rus merchants encountered by Ibn Fadlan - brought the furs
they had bought or collected as tribute to the great market on the Volga, where merchants
from Khurasan and Khwarazm gathered to buy them. Ibn Rusta says the Bulghars paid 2-2 ¥2
dirhams a pelt, but the price must have varied considerably according to type, rarity and
quality. Kovalev has estimated that more than 500,000 pelts were exported from Bulghar
every year (Kovalev (2000-2001), 33). The fur trade also financed the formation of the
Kievan Russian principality, which began as a Rus-dominated trading post feeding slaves and
furs first to the Khazars, and later to the Bulghars. By the end of the tenth century, Kiev had
become a Christian, Slavic-speaking principality.
The system of levying taxes in furs persisted in Russia well into the modern era, and the
search for new sources of fur-bearing animals eventually led Russian trappers far to the east
and across the Bering Strait to Alaska and the Pacific North-west of the North American
continent. Ibn Fadlan was therefore a witness to the operations of the early medieval
equivalent of the Hudson Bay Company.
Glossary
aja’ib ‘wonders’, mirabilia.
amir ruler; military leader.
ansdr ‘helpers’; the early converts - in the lifetime of the Prophet - to Islam in Medina.
bak also bak. Turkic title (modern Turkish beg ) used by Khazars for the ‘king’/military commander who ruled in tandem with
the khaqan. Other terms used in the sources for the same office are: tarkhan, I sha (shad) and yiligh.
barid the Abbasid system of postal relays, used for official communications and intelligence gathering.
bezant the medieval European term for the Byzantine gold solidus, equivalent to the dinar.
dalaq marten pelt, used as currency; one pelt was equivalent to 2 Bulghar dirhams or 2 V 2 Khazar dirhams. This word also
occurs in the form dallah.
danaq a small coin, one-sixth of a dirham; the corresponding weight.
dinar a gold coin with a canonical weight of 1.4 oz (4.25 g). The gold to silver ratio in Bulghar was 1:12, in Khazaria 1:15.
dirham the Samanid dirham and its Volga Bulghar imitation was a stamped silver coin weighing 1.13 oz (3.41 g). The
dirhams struck in Khazaria were lighter, weighing .9 oz (2.73 g).
diwan audience chamber.
fals a small coin of base metal.
faqih a jurisconsult, a man learned in Islamic law.
farsakh measure of distance, roughly 3Vi miles.
ghulam literally, a ‘young man’. In Abbasid times generally means a slave soldier or former slave serving the owner who freed
him. The slaves were usually of Turkic origin. It can also mean a page (p. 35).
hadith account of an act or a saying of the Prophet Muhammad.
hajj the pilgrimage to Mecca.
Hanafi one of the four sunni schools of Islamic law, founded by Abu Hanifa (d. 767).
iqlim from the Greek klimata. Arab geographers influenced by the classical tradition divided the habitable earth into Seven
Climes. The Persian, or Balkhi school of descriptive administrative geography used the word to mean ‘district’.
isha see bak.
isnad the chain of reputable authorities authenticating a Prophetic tradition (hadith).
janaba major ritual pollution.
jinn impalpable beings who can be malevolent or beneficent, considered to inhabit ruins and other waste places.
khadank birch (Turkic kading ); see also Part II, note 16.
khalanj maple wood?
khaqan Old Turkic title meaning ‘Lord of the steppes’.
khatib the man who delivers the khutba.
khutba the sermon delivered before communal prayers on Fridays. It was customary, although not prescribed by the shar‘ia,
to invoke the name of the ruler; failure to do so was often seen as tantamount to rebellion.
kilavuz a Turkic word for guide.
kiinde Magyar title corresponding to bak; see also Part I, note 88 and Part III, note 23.
majus originally referred to the Zoroastrians, and came to mean ‘fire worshippers’; it was transferred to the Norsemen
perhaps because of their custom of burning their dead. See also Appendix 2.
mann a weight of 2 rati; 2.5-4.5 kg.
mithqal (plural mathaqil) both a measure of weight and a gold coin of that weight (1.4 oz; 4.25 g).
nabidh wine or other drink fermented for only one day, therefore licit for Muslims.
qadi a judge who administers the Holy Law ( shar‘ia ).
qinshar unidentified coin mentioned by Ibrahim ibn Ya'qub and encountered in Prague; 1 qinshar purchased 10 chickens.
qubba dome.
rati in Baghdad it weighed 409.5 g; the measurement varied considerably.
ribat a defensible caravanserai, or fortress; often used as a base by orders of warriors pledged to jihad (see III: 3).
shad see bak.
Shafi‘i one of the four sunni schools of Islamic law, founded by the imam Shafi'i (d. 820).
shar‘ia the system of Islamic law, codified in four major schools.
sura chapter of the Qur’an.
tagh unidentified tree, used as firewood; Yaqut glosses as ghada, a variety of euphorbia. None of the suggested identifications
is very plausible.
tarkhan Turkic title, ‘noble’; also used for the ‘king’ in the Khazar system of dual kingship.
tazja Khwarazmian coin; there were 15 to the dinar.
tengri Turkic sky god.
tussuj unit of weight: 4 tussuj to the danaq, 24 to the dinar.
yabghu ancient Turkish royal title, which occurs in the Orkhan inscriptions. Among the Ghuzz it seems to have been applied
to the sons, brothers and other close relatives of the khdqan.
yiligh see bak.
yiltawar Turkic alteber, title of the vassal of a khdqan.
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Notes
INTRODUCTION
1. For many years it was thought that Itil had been engulfed by the Caspian Sea, but in 2008 a team of archaeologists from
Astrakhan University, led by Dr Dmitry Vasilyev, announced the discovery of what may well be the site, including the
remains of a triangular brick fort, near the village of Samosdelka in the Volga delta.
2. See Appendix 1 for more details on the Khazars.
3. The other account is by Tamim ibn Bahri, an otherwise unknown Arab, who travelled on an official mission to the Uighur
khaqan at Khara Balghasun in what is now Mongolia in 821; he also visited the KImak Turks on the Irtish River in Siberia.
His report was preserved by Ibn al-Faqlh; it is of mainly topographic interest. The fullest version is in the same Mashhad
manuscript that contains Ibn Fadlan’s account. See Minorsky (1948), 275-305. On Alexander’s Wall, see Part III, note 1.
4. The ruins of Bulghar are about 3 miles from the left bank of the Volga, 52 miles south of Kazan, near the village of
Bolgerskoye. The Bulghars originated in the steppe north of the Sea of Azov, but settled the Middle Volga in the eighth
century. See Appendix 4 The Fur Trade.
5. The Bulghars and Khazars also shared a common language: see also Part III, note 66.
6. See Part I, note 11.
7. See Appendix 3 for a brief history of the Samanid dynasty and Part I, notes.
8. It is perhaps significant that Almish is called ‘king of the Bulghars’ in the khutba, while Ibn Fadlan uniformly refers to him
as ‘king of the Saqaliba’; perhaps the latter was the form of address used by the Abbasid chancery.
9. For a recent discussion of the Norse elements in the funeral rites, see Schjpdt (2007).
10. For a fuller discussion of the Rus and their relationship with the Khazars, see Appendix 2.
11. The difference between the shifting curtains of green light caused by the solar wind striking the magnetosphere and the
much brighter display caused when a substorm occurs and the aurora becomes as much as a thousand times brighter than
usual as high-energy electrons smash into air molecules, exciting red and green light from oxygen molecules and blue from
nitrogen. Ibn Fadlan must have been lucky enough to witness one of these striking displays. The accompanying ‘tumult
and noise’ of battle are harder to rationalize; the hearing of sounds and even music during displays of the aurora borealis
are a commonplace even of nineteenth-century descriptions; see Bates (1974), 103-8.
12. This is described by Birunl. For khutil, see Lavers and Knapp (2008).
13. See Dimashql (1866), 263-4. Mas'udi mentions a visit to Baghdad by one of Almish’s sons on his way to Mecca; see Part
III, 18: 137.
14. His full name was Abu Hamid Muhammad ibn ‘Abd al-Rahim ibn Abl al-RabT al-Mazinl al-Qaysi al-AndalusI, al-Gharnatl
al-UqlisI. The final element of his name shows that he was originally from the town of Ucles in the province of Cuenca.
15. Lieber (1990).
16. Eaters of the Dead was made into a film under the title The 13th Warrior (1999), starring Antonio Banderas as an
improbable - and clean-shaven - Ibn Fadlan.
PART I THE BOOK OF AHMAD IBN FADLAN 921-922
1. caliph Muqtadir: Reigned 908-932.
2. Saqaliba: Arabic (singular saqlab ), derived from the Greek sklabos, meaning ‘Slav’: see Appendix 2. In Carolingian times the
classical Latin word for slave, servus, began to be replaced by sclavus, so that ‘Slav’ became synonymous with ‘slave’ (for
the early medieval slave trade, see McCormick (2001), 733-77). The Arab geographers often used the word Saqaliba in a
wider sense, however, simply to refer to any northern people, e.g. Slavs, Scandinavians, Finns, Balts, Saxons, Germans,
Franks and other peoples of northern lands, and it is not always possible to tell exactly which people is meant. In this
volume Saqaliba is always used, except where context definitely means ‘Slav’.
3. Almish ibn (Shilki) Yiltawdr : MS reads: al-hasan bin bltwar. Further on (f. 202v), the name is given correctly: almish bin
y(i)ltawar. The element shilki has been added from the full form of the name there, confirmed by the text in Yaqut.
4. minbar: The raised platform in a mosque from which the congregation is addressed by the imam.
5. his name: I.e. in the name of the caliph. Including the reigning caliph in the khutba was a recognition of his suzerainty.
6. Nadhir al-Harami: A powerful eunuch at the Abbasid court and organizer of the embassy, but he did not accompany it.
7. Arthakhushmithan: Described by Yaqut as ‘a large city with busy markets, the size of Nislbln’. In MS and in Dahhan’s
edition, the name is spelled ‘Arthakhushmithayn’.
8. Ibn al-Furat: Belonged to a dynasty of viziers, and held this office himself three times (908-912, 917-918, 923-924) under
the caliph Muqtadir. He was a talented administrator, but was twice dismissed and imprisoned for corruption, and finally
executed in 924. See also notes 21 and 51.
9. al-Khazari : Apparently a Muslim Khazar. The Bulghar embassy to the caliph sought an alliance against the Jewish Khazars,
and this of course was supported by Muslim Khazars.
10. caliph: Here called sultan in MS, rather than khalifa. Sultan was not used as a synonym for caliph in Ibn Fadlan’s lifetime.
It may be a later interpolation or is possibly used in the sense of ‘government’. (It occurs also pp. 10, 20, 45.)
11. Sawsan ... Saqlab: Sawsan (lily) is a typical male slave name. Sawsan al-Rassi was a freedman of Nadhir al-Harami. The
second element of his name is derived from the Aras River (al-Rass), which runs through Armenia, joins the Kur and falls
into the Caspian Sea ( Bahr al-Khazar ) below Baku. Tikin is the Arabic transcription of tekin, a Turkic word meaning ‘hero’,
applied to members of the khaqan’s family and a common element in Turkish names. Bars possibly represents the Slavic
name Boris, but there is a Turkic name Bars.
12. without halting: MS reads layakunu ‘ala shayin which Canard emends to la nalwi ‘ala shayin.
13. Qirmisin: Qarmisin in MS; modern Kirmanshah.
14. Ahmad ibn ‘Ali... al-Rayy: Ahmad ibn ‘All Su'luk was the brother of Muhammad ibn ‘All Su'luk, appointed governor of
Rayy by the Samanid ruler Nasr ibn Ahmad. Ahmad ibn ‘All helped the Abbasid general Mu’nis in a campaign against the
ruler of Azerbaijan, and in return was appointed governor of Isfahan and Qum. When Ibn Fadlan met him, he was
governor of Rayy. For more details, see Canard, n. 20. Khuwar al-Rayy was east of Rayy, in the province of Qumis.
15. agent of the Da’ i: Ibn Qarin’s full name was Sharwan ibn Rustum ibn Qarin, a prince of the Caspian Bawand dynasty. The
‘Da‘i’ refers to al-Hasan ibn al-Qasim (876-928), governor of Jurjan, whose title, granted him by his father-in-law, the shi‘a
Zaydi imam and ruler of Tabaristan, was Da‘i al-Haqq, ‘Propagator of the Truth’. These men were bitterly opposed to the
sunni regimes of the Samanids and Abbasids.
16. killed ... Hamawayh Kusa: Layla ibn Nu'man, the IsmaTlI governor of Jurjan, was captured and put to death in 921 by
Hamawayh ibn ‘Ali [Humawayh Kusa], Samanid general and governor of Samarqand’, who was commander of the army
of Nasr ibn Ahmad ibn Isma‘11.
17. Qushmahan: The town of Kushmayhan. Muqaddasi lists the six stages of the journey from Merv (Marw) to Amul.
Interestingly, the fifth stage on this desert route is called Ribat Baris, the same form of the name as that of the Slavic envoy.
18. Afirabr: This place name occurs as Afrin in MS, but it should be Afirabr, or Firabr (now Farab). Firabr is mentioned by
Muqaddasi, who says it lies about a farsakh from the river, has low taxes, excellent grapes and a caravanserai built by the
Samanid ruler Nasr ibn Ahmad, although this may not have been built when Ibn Fadlan passed through.
19. Jayhani: The famous minister of Nasr ibn Ahmad. His full name was Abu ‘Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Jayhani,
and he was the author of a Book of Roads and Kingdoms, unfortunately lost, but citations from it have been preserved in
Muqaddasi and Ibn Hawqal.
20. Nasr ibn Ahmad: Nasr ibn Ahmad ibn Isma‘11 (ruled 914-943) was sixteen or seventeen at the time of Ibn Fadlan’s visit.
21. our path: Although the details of this affair are slightly obscure, the general situation is clear. Ibn al-Furat was imprisoned
for peculation in 918 (see note 8), and the revenues of the town of Arthakhushmithan were transferred from his Christian
agent Fadl ibn Musa al-Nasranl to Ahmad ibn Musa al-Khwarazml. This money was intended to defray the costs of the
embassy, so Fadl ibn Musa naturally resented its loss and instructed his agents to arrest Ahmad ibn Musa, which they
accordingly did. Meanwhile, Fadl encouraged the envoys to proceed before winter set in, thereby, incidentally, preventing
them from learning the fate of Ahmad ibn Musa. The Gate of the Turks (Bab al-Turk ) was a strategic frontier post on the
border of Khwarazm, near Zamjan.
22. ghitrifi dirhams: Named after the early Abbasid governor of Khurasan, Ghitrlf ibn ‘Attab. His two brothers, Muhammad
and Musayyab, both had coins named after them, the muhammadi and the musayyabi dirhams (see p. 10). This passage on
coinage is confusing because Ibn Fadlan uses ‘dirham’ when speaking of the small base coins of Bukhara, instead of the
more exact term fals.
23. Khwarazm: Ibn Fadlan uses this term both as the name of the province and its capital. The latter was Kath.
24. rented the boat: The envoys probably hired their boat at Jikarband (Jiqarwand), rather than retracing their steps to Firabr
via Baykand. Jiqarband is one of the twenty-five crossings of the Oxus listed by Muqaddasi.
25. Khwarazm Shah Muhammad ibn ‘Iraq: Otherwise unknown.
26. land of the Infidels: Tikin was apparently engaged in the arms trade with the pagan tribes to the north, and the Khwarazm
Shah is accusing him of attempting to establish direct commercial relations between Baghdad and the Slavs, bypassing his
own authority and that of the powerful Samanid ruler, Nasr ibn Ahmad.
27. ki’ab, dawamat: Probably local names for small coins; however, ki’ab can also mean ‘dice’ and Yaqut, in the parallel
passage, reads duwwdmdt, ‘tops’ (child’s toy). Canard suggests reading the latter word (the initial ‘m’ is unclear in the MS)
as dawayat (inkwells).
28. Ardakuwa ... Kardaliya: Ardaku or Ardakuwa; Frye (2005) reads Kardaliya as Ardakiwa, from the name of the village.
29. deny the legitimacy ... prayer: Indicating that they were not shVa, but the sunni do not curse ‘All.
30. seventeen spans thick: Yaqut says that the Jayhun occasionally freezes to the thickness of 5 spans, but the usual thickness
is 2 or 3 spans. He accuses Ibn Fadlan of ‘lying’ in this passage, and goes on to say that the wagons used to transport
firewood could not possibly carry 3,000 rati ; their normal load was 1,000.
31. ‘bread’: Yaqut adds: ‘If something is given, he takes it; if not, he departs.’
32. Sha‘ban ... Shawwal: That is, December 921-February 922.
33. boats ... camel skin: These must have been collapsible boats made of the skin stretched across a wicker frame.
34. kilavuz: Zeki Validi Togan is surely correct in suggesting that the word in MS represents the Turkish word kilavuz, simply
meaning ‘guide’.
35. ribat... Turks: The Ribat Zamjan was presumably the fort protecting the Gate of the Turks (see note 21).
36. ‘Lords’: The word used is rabb (Arabic for ‘lord’, cognate with Hebrew ‘rabbi’ - unusual in this context).
37. ‘Theirpolitical... themselves’: Qur’an 42:38.
38. kudharkin: There is no agreement about the origin or exact meaning of this word, which is clearly a title.
39. []: There is a blank the length of a word in MS.
40. nabidh: Usually means ‘wine’, but here probably refers to mead or kumis, fermented mare’s milk.
41. numerous yurts: Buyut kathira, but Dahhan (1959) reads Buyut kabira (big yurts).
42. clothing ...pieces: Classical authors (Ammianus Marcellus xxxi.2, Herodotus iv.75) mention the same custom among the
Huns and Scyths respectively. According to Maqrizi (fourteenth century), the Yasa of Genghiz Khan forbade the washing of
garments and stipulated that they must be worn until they rot.
43. Inal: The phrase ‘ibn akhima’ occurs after this name; it seems to make no sense and has been omitted.
44. saddle frames: This is guess work; the word in the text is indth, which makes no sense.
45. Yaghindi... rivers: Some of these rivers can be securely identified, others are uncertain. Frye (2005), 97 and Rona-Tas
(1999), 223 give the following based on the abundant scholarly literature: Yaghindi = Zhayindi; Jam = Emba; Jakhsh =
Saghiz; Udhil = Uil; ‘Ardin = Kaldygayti; Warsh = Olenty?; Akht! = Ankati; Wabna = Utba.
46. Jayikh ... Kunjulu: The tentative river identifications are: Jayikh = Ural; Jakha = Chagan; Arkhaz = Irgiz; Bajagh =
Mocha; Samur = Samara; Kinal = Kinel; Sukh = Sok; Kunjulu = Kundurcha.
47. Bashghirds: Also Bashkirs, Bashgird, Bashkurt; a Turkic people, speaking a language close to Kipcaq and inhabiting the
Ural mountains on the borders of Bulghar territory. These were known to the Arab geographers as the ‘Inner Bashghirds’;
the ‘Outer Bashghirds’ inhabited areas of what is now Hungary, and were visited by Abu Hamid al-AndalusI. At the time of
Ibn Fadlan, the Bashghirds were still shamanists.
48. God ... souls: An echo of Qur’an 17:42.
49. Jirimshan ... Jawshir: The river identifications are: Jirimshan = Cheremshan; Uran = Uran; Uram = Urem; Baynakh =
Mayna; Watigh = Utka; Niyasnah = ?; Jawshir = Aqtay or Gausherma.
50. black: The official colour of the Abbasid dynasty.
51. Hamid ibn al-‘Abbas: The caliph Muqtadir’s vizier (918-923), replacing Ibn al-Furat, who was in jail and whose estate had
been forfeited to raise the 4,000 dirhams to build the fortress for the king of the Bulghars (see also note 8). Hamid had been
a wealthy tax-farmer; he is remembered as the man who signed the death warrant for the famous mystic al-Hallaj, executed
in 922 while Ibn Fadlan was en route to Bulghar.
52. over him: The parallel passage in Yaqut reads ‘over us’, but given the dirhams scattered over the queen below, this must be
the correct reading.
53. [Then ... table.]: Supplied from the parallel account by Yaqut. The copyist of the MS appears to have missed a line
describing the serving of the third king.
54. cup: Yaqut adds: ‘and we drank a cup’.
55. caliph: The surprising term ustadh (teacher, preceptor) is used here; Canard points out that it was the normal honorific for
the vizier, rather than the caliph, and it is possible that that is what is intended here.
56. iqama twice ...prayer: The iqama is almost identical to the idhan, differing only by the addition of the words qad qamat al-
salat (now is the time of prayer). It is a shortened form of the call to prayer, recited as the prayers begin, and according to
the Shafi‘1 rite, which Ibn Fadlan was anxious to impose on the kingdom of Bulghar, the phrases that make up the shahada
(the Muslim profession of faith: ‘There is no God but God: Muhammad is the messenger of God’) are repeated only once,
rather than twice as in the Hanafi rite followed by the Samanids and most of Central Asia. The Bulghar ruler, by
reintroducing the Hanafi iqama, was seen by Ibn Fadlan to be asserting his independence of the Abbasid caliphate.
57. Abu Bakr the Truthful: Abu Bakr al-Siddlq (The Truthful) was the first caliph (632-634), the successor to the Prophet
Muhammad as head of the Muslim community. The Bulghar king is not only displaying his knowledge of the early history
of Islam, and incidentally reminding Ibn Fadlan of the duty of the good Muslim to tell the truth, but taking a sarcastic dig
at his guest, who he thinks is lying about the whereabouts of the 4,000 dinars.
58. saw the horizon ...first created: Although this is clearly an account of the aurora borealis, Ibn Fadlan’s description has
roots in the Greek scientific tradition. James Montgomery points out that visions of ‘spectral armies’ battling are a topos
that goes back to classical descriptions of meteorological phenomena (see Montgomery (2006), 76-81).
59. a seventh part of the Qur’an: The Qur’an was often divided into seven parts, so that it could be read over the period of a
week.
60. [scattered ...fades]: Added from Yaqut.
61. Wisu: The Ves, a Finnic-speaking people who inhabited the White Lake region east of Lake Ladoga. See also Part II, note
15.
62. [summer]... [summer]: Inserted to clarify the text.
63. Itil: Not to be confused with the Khazar capital on the lower Volga (near present-day Astrakhan); Itil here refers to the site
on the Volga (Itil) later to be occupied by the town of Bulghar, at this time simply a seasonal marketplace. The Volga has
changed course, and the ruins of the town are now found some distance from the river.
64. snakes: May have been Amur ratsnakes, Elaphe schrencki schrenki, which are semi-arboreal and very large.
65. berry: Probably berries of the same family as the blueberry.
66. Tree sap: This could well be birch sap, given the latitude, but Ibn Fadlan implies that the tree is new to him, and he must
already have seen birch trees.
67. [of his weapons]: Added from Yaqut.
68. before men: Yaqut is more specific: ‘To cover themselves when swimming with the men’.
69. Muhammad: Ibn Fadlan’s given name was Ahmad, a variant of Muhammad.
70. great market: Later became the town of Bulghar (see also note 63).
71. Itil River: Yaqut adds: ‘and it is a river one day’s journey away’.
72. and Magog: The king’s story implies that some of the Wisu were literate. As in his explanation of the aurora borealis, the
king assimilates the giant into Islamic lore, perhaps seeking to frighten Ibn Fadlan with visions of the apocalypse, always
associated with the hordes of Gog and Magog (see also Part III, note 5).
73. They are naked: This phrase seems out of place here, and the text may be corrupt.
74. shoved: Qadhafani is clearly written; all editors have emended it to something else (Dahhan (1959) reads fa-qaddamani:
‘he made me go in front of him’), apparently on the grounds that it is unlikely the king pushed Ibn Fadlan. But the lack of
respect may well be intentional: the king is waging a battle of wits with Ibn Fadlan, and the veiled threats embodied in
stories like that of the fate of the particularly clever merchant from Sind are becoming more open.
75. Jawshir ... Suwaz ... Wiragh: MS reads ‘Jawshlz’, but this is the Jawshir (Aqtay) River, an affluent of the Kama,
previously mentioned. ‘Suwan’ in MS. ‘Wiragh’ is not clearly written in MS.
76. This people: Dahhan (1959) reads hadhihi l-umma, following Zeki Validi Togan, but the word umma (the Muslim
community) is not legible, and the demonstrative pronoun is clearly hadha: so perhaps hadha al-qawm (this people)?
77. All around ... trees: MS reads: ‘around it a tree [blank for one word ending in ‘t’] many of khadank trees and others’.
78. rhinoceros: Karkaddan. Whatever this was, it was not a rhinoceros. Descriptions of the karkaddan are a topos of Arabic
geographical literature and wonder books (for an amusing discussion of this topic, see Montgomery (2006), 66-72). Ibn
Fadlan’s account is notable because it does not conform to the conventional description of the karkaddan. It should be
noted that the identification as a rhinoceros is by his informants, not Ibn Fadlan.
79. a woman from Khwarazm: The corpse must be washed by a Muslim woman and this can only be done if one is present
(and if not, not). The main source of Muslim women was Khwarazm. The passage implies that Islam has not extended to
Bulghar females.
80. dark green: Montgomery ((2000), 6, n. 18) points out that mukhaddar shajar here means ‘dark green’ rather than ‘green
trees’.
81. brooch: MS reads halqa, which implies a circular ornament; Dahhan (1959) amends this to huqqa, following Yaqut, which
would imply a square container of some sort.
82. The most... boats: This is an awkward sentence. The puzzling phrase is al-kharaf alladhiyakunu ‘ala l-sufunyubalighunafi-
hi. MS reads yubayi’Una (they sell), which Dahhan (1959) changes, following Yaqut, to yubdlighuna (they value dearly),
which makes more sense.
83. raised platform: Sarir (throne, couch).
84. [ribs]: There are several blanks in MS for this paragraph; these have been filled in from the parallel account in Yaqut.
Some manuscripts of Yaqut give a longer version of the final sentence.
85. beg: Written ‘bh’ in MS, representing the pronunciation of bdk/beg.
86. [Every: MS breaks off here; the remainder of the text is taken from Yaqut (1866), under the entry ‘Khazar’.
87. right of him: The use of purifying fire when entering the presence of the khaqan was common to both Turkish and Mongol
peoples.
88. Kundur ... jawshighir: Kundur is probably an error for kiinde, which exists as a Magyar title (see Part III, note 23);
jawshighir most probably stands for cavush Uighur, ‘marshal of the Uighurs’; see Dunlop (1954) 38 and 111, n. 92.
89. king of the Khazars: Ibn Fadlan here clearly means the khaqan kabir, the Great Khaqan.
90. khaz: The word has not been convincingly explained.
91. Dor al-Babunaj: Means ‘House of Cammomile’; it was probably in Darband, although some scholars have speculated that it
may have been in Pumbedita, the residence of the Gaon near Baghdad, or even in far-off al-Andalus.
PART II THE TRAVELS OF ABU HAMID AL-ANDALUSI AL-GHARANATI 1130-1155
1. Abu Hamid: This passage (in italics) has been supplied from Qazwini, who clearly had a fuller account of the journey of
Sallam the Interpreter than that preserved by Ibn Khurradadhbih, which does not contain the passage about the Island of
Sheep in the Caspian.
2. snakes: Probably Caspian whip snakes ( Coluber caspius ).
3. al-Mahamili: Abu al-Hasan Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn al-Mahamili (978-1024), a Shafi’ite jurisconsult from Baghdad.
4. Lakzan ... Arabic: Not all these languages can be identified, but most were spoken in the Caucasus.
5. Saqsin: Abu Hamid spells this name: Sajsln, Sakhsln and Saqsin; the last is the accepted form. Its exact location is still
undetermined, but Abu Hamid makes it clear that Saqsin was on the lower reaches of the Volga; it could well be the
successor to the Khazar capital of Itil and may have occupied the same site.
6. Maghrib ... thousands: Abu Hamid’s reference to the large number of Maghribls is very surprising. MaghribI means
‘westerner’ and here refers to Muslims from North Africa and al-Andalus, all of whom followed the legal school of the imam
Malik. This community from the far west was clearly established in Saqsin for commercial reasons; if they were merchants,
they were almost certainly trading in slaves and furs.
7. descendants of the Maghribis: This suggests they may have been established in Saqsin for a long period, possibly since
Khazar times.
8. snow ... colours: There was a trade in snow, for cooling drinks, in the Islamic world, but it is hard to believe it could have
been shipped from Bulghar to interested markets without melting, so it may have been used in Bulghar itself. The colours
are not explained.
9. beyond the Seventh Clime: Muslim geographers placed the end of the Seventh Clime, the most northerly inhabited region of
the earth, just south of Bulghar.
10. In Bulghar ... stones: This paragraph is from Abu Hamid’s Tuhfat al-albab ; see Abu Hamid al-AndalusI (1990), 78-9.
11. ‘Ad: This tribe, repeatedly mentioned in the Qur’an, peopled the earth after the Deluge (the biblical Flood) and in Islamic
folklore were a race of giants. Ancient ruins in Islamic lands are often attributed to them. See also p. 84.
12. not break: Mammoth ivory was known as khutu, and was much sought after for making knife handles as well as the
objects mentioned here. See Lavers and Knapp (2008), 306-18.
13. al-Bulghari’s own hand: Ya'qub ibn Nu‘man al-Bulgharl (eleventh century); this work has not survived. The folk etymology
is of course incorrect; Bulghar is from a Turkic root meaning ‘people of mixed origin’.
14. Abu al-Ma‘ali al-Juwayni: Abu al-Ma‘ali ‘Abd al-Malik al-Juwaynl (1028-1085), from Nishapur, was a famous jurisconsult,
theologian and extremely prolific author. He was one of the teachers of the philosopher al-Ghazall.
15. Wisu ... Aru: The Ves of The Russian Primary Chronicle, the modern Veps; (see also Part I, note 61); the Aru have not been
identified but may be the Artha in other texts.
16. khalanj: Probably maple, but the word is very similar to khadank (birch), which seems more likely in this context.
Qazwini says khalanj wood was used in Tabarastan to make various receptacles, including serving platters and large bowls,
which were then taken to Rayy to be finished on the lathe and decorated. The wood was also used for arrows (Qazwini
(1960), 104).
17. And ... godfearing’: Qur’an 91:8.
18. Yura: Yughra of Russian sources: see Appendix 4.
19. iron blank ... time: In the parallel passage in his Tuhfat al-albab, Abu Hamid says that merchants bought these sword
blanks in Azerbaijan at the price of one dirham for four blades.
20. giant birds ... beaks: This must be the crossbill, a kind of finch, but it is not a ‘giant’ bird. The Yughra (Yura), however, did
have legends of giant birds with huge beaks; see Karjalainen (1921), 34-5.
21. river of the Saqaliba: Abu Hamid must have descended the Oka on his way to Kiev (Ghurkuman; to Tatars, Merkuman).
22. ‘water sable’: Probably the otter.
23. juqn: Probably represents the Old Slavic term kuna (squirrel pelt), still used today to denote the currency of Croatia.
24. Saqlabi: See Part I, note 2.
25. Nestorian Christians: Neither the Byzantines nor the Saqaliba were Nestorians.
26. Maghribis: Clearly not from Spain and North Africa, like those above (see note 6). They are almost certainly Pecenegs, the
Turkic nomads frequently mentioned in the Arabic sources as inhabiting the steppe lands around the Dnieper; many of
them settled in Hungary. Why Abu Hamid calls them ‘Maghribis’ has not been satisfactorily explained. For Ghurkuman, see
note 21.
27. king of Bashghird: The Hungarian king was Geza II (reigned 1141-1162); see Part I, note 47.
28. lord of Constantinople: Manuel I Comnenos (reigned 1143-1180).
29. kirali: Kazali in MS; it should be read kiraly, the Hungarian word for ‘king’.
30. thaytal: Arabic, referring to the wild cow, Bos taurus.
31. al-Shu‘bi: Unidentified.
32. InBulghar ... instantly. From Tuhfat al-albab.
33. ‘Abd al-Wahid ibn Fayruz al-Jawhari: Perhaps the brother of ‘Abd al-Karlm ibn Fayruz mentioned in ‘Return to the land of
the Saqaliba’ above.
34. Mahmud ... place: Mahmud of Ghazna (reigned 998-1030), founder of the Ghaznavid dynasty. The enchanted mosque has
not been located.
35. Ala’ al-Dawla Khwarazmshah: No one of this name is recorded; maybe ‘Ala’ al-DIn (reigned 1127-1156).
36. lord of Konya ... Mas‘ud: The Seljuk ruler of Konya, Qilich Arslan II (reigned 1156-1192).
37. back to Bashghird ...family: This was a journey Abu Hamid seems never to have made. His patron, ‘Awn al-DIn, was
poisoned by rivals in 1165, which may have precipitated his departure from Mosul that year. In any case, he never returned
to ransom his son Hamid in Hungary and never rejoined his women-folk in Saqsln.
PART III PASSAGES FROM OTHER GEOGRAPHERS, HISTORIANS AND TRAVELLERS
1. the wall: Although Alexander’s Wall was carefully marked on medieval Islamic maps (including that of IdrlsI on the cover
of this volume), such a barrier or rampart did not exist, and the story was probably generated by tales of the Great Wall of
China. See Qur’an 18:92-8.
2. Ashnas: A Turk, commander of the Abbasid army.
3. Ishaq ibn Ismatil... ‘Master of the Throne’: The ruler of Tiflis (c. 830-853); married to a daughter of the ‘Master of the
Throne’, ( sahib al-sarir ), the Avar ruler of Daghestan. The latter was said to possess an ancient golden throne. The country
itself is usually simply called ‘Sarlr’ (throne).
4. tarkhan: A Turkish title denoting high rank; the title of the Khazar ruler, however, was khaqan. This probably refers to his
military counterpart, the khaqan beg.
5. Gog ... a half: The Arabic sources differ greatly in the size accorded the people of Gog and Magog, some saying they were
very small, others that they were giants.
6. “When the ...is true ,, : Qur’an 18:98.
7. Isbishab, Ushrusana: This must be Isbijab, now Sayram in Uzbekistan; Ushrusana was the region just east of Samarkand.
8. Fleet... Norsemen: Ustul al-majus min al-urdumaniyin, literally ‘the fleet of the majus of the Nordomanni’, i.e. Norsemen.
9. from the Mediterranean: This must be an error, although the next phrase clearly reads bahr al-rum (‘sea of the Byzantines’ =
Mediterranean). The following passage from Ahmad’s son ‘Isa correctly says the Vikings came from the ‘Western Sea’, i.e.
the Atlantic.
10. Abd al-Rahman ibn al-Hakam: ‘Abd al-Rahman II (ruled 822- 852).
11. the river: The Guadalquivir.
12. Aljarafe: The hills just north of Seville, overlooking the city.
13. Abd al-Rahman III: Reigned 912-961.
14. Samkarsh: The Phanagoria of the Byzantine chronicles, modern Taman on the east shore of the Kertch strait. See Dunlop
(1954), 172.
15. River Tanais ... Khamlij: Tanais may be a mistake for ‘Volga’, or the long portage from the Don to the Volga has been
omitted. Khamlij is better read Khamllkh, the ‘business’ district of Itil.
16. yurt: (MS reads wurt ); used here in the sense of ‘grazing lands, homeland’.
17. Muhammad ibn Ishaq: I.e. Ib n al-Faqlh.
18. from ... the Franks: At this early date the silk industry had not been established in Italy, and the only possible sources in
Europe would have been al-Andalus and possibly Sicily.
19. Radhaniya: De Goeje’s text (Ib nal-Faqlh (1885)) reads Rahdanlya, which some scholars see as the solution to the vexed
question of the meaning of Radhaniya: a Persian compound made up of rah (way) and dan (knowing), forming a name
meaning something like ‘knowers of the way’. The Mashhad manuscript of Ibn al-Faqlh, however, reads Radhaniya,
confirming the reading in Ibn al-Faqlh’s source, Ibn Khurradadhbih.
20. 1 sha: Probably represents the Turkic shad, a military title for a high rank; here it corresponds to bak or yiligh of other texts.
21. Sarighshin ... [Khanbaligh?]: Respectively, possibly the name later rendered as Saqsln; see also Part II, note 5. MS reading is
hbnT, which some scholars have construed as ‘Khanbaligh’, ‘city of the Khan’, but this is unlikely.
22. [Then ... cash.]: From GardizI, who wrote in Persian c. 1050; see Martinez (1982), 158-9. Gardizi here followed Ibn
Rusta’s text on the Bulghars, with occasional amplifications. See also Pritsak (1998), 24.
23. jilah: The nominal, or sacral, ruler of the Magyars was kiinde, while the equivalent of the acting ruler, the khaqan beg, was
jila. After the Magyar conquest of the Carpathian basin, the acting ruler took the title kiinde, while jila was used for his
second in command. See Rona-Tas (2007), 275.
24. Wabnit: (Wantlt) may be related to the name of the Eastern Slavic tribe, the Vyatici.
25. subanj: Probably the Old Slavic title zhupan, of Avar or Turkic origin; it is clear from this passage that the Saqaliba
possessed the institution of dual kingship, following the Khazar model.
26. Svetopolk: This may be the Moravian king Svetopolk (reigned 870-894); there were several rulers with the name at this
time.
27. Graditsa: MS reads jarwab; a suggested reading is jarad.s.t. Graditsa was the name of Svetopolk’s capital (later
Gradistsche).
28. an island in a lake: This may be Gorodishche, called Holmgarthr in the Icelandic sagas, a trading post near where the
Volkhov issues forth from Lake Ilmen. If so, this may have been the ‘home’ to which the delegation of Rhos who visited
Ingelheim was attempting to return, as recounted in the Annales Bertiniani (see Appendix 2, p. 204).
29. sell them in Khazaran: The district included the slave market in Itil.
30. ‘Sulayman’ swords: These ‘Solomon’ swords apparently took their name from the Salman district of Khurasan.
31. a quarrel... wins: This seems to have been a sort of ceremonial combat; the man who succeeded in nicking the blade of his
opponent won.
32. trousers ... knees: Rock carvings have been found at Scandinavian sites which depict the huge trousers worn by the Rus.
33. Darband: Bab wa 1-abwab (Gate and the Gates) is more usually called in Arabic ‘Gate of Gates’. This extraordinary series of
fortifications, which extended into the sea, forming a breakwater that also enclosed the port, entry to which was by an iron
gate, seems to have been built in Sasanian times - Chosroe Anushlrwan was the Sasanian ruler of Iran (reigned 531-579) -
although local tradition attributes it to Alexander the Great.
34. in peril: From Qarmatian attacks.
35. ‘Party Kings’: Muluk al-Tawa’if. This expression, used by Muslim historians to refer to the Satrapies that sprang up after
the death of Alexander, is also used for the independent emirates that followed the breakdown of the Umayyad caliphate in
Spain. Mas'udI is thinking of the Ikhshidids, Fatimids, Samanids, Spanish Umayyads, Hamdanids and other independent
states that were formed in the ninth and tenth centuries.
36. The caliph Muttaqi (reigned 940-944).
37. Salman ibn RabVa al-Bahili: Conquered Samandar - probably near present-day Makhac-kala in the north-eastern Caucasus
- in 652, but was killed during the battle. For Itil, see Part I, note 63.
38. Sea of Azov: Bahr Mayutis (Sea of Maeotis).
39. Harun al-Rashid: It is now generally accepted that the conversion of the Khazar rulers took place sometime during his
reign (786-809). The Khazar tribal confederation emerged in the sixth century, when a Turkish ruling elite succeeded in
uniting a number of Turkish and non-Turkish steppe nomadic groups under their rule in the Volga-Pontic steppe-
Caucasus region. Between the seventh and tenth centuries the Khazars were allied with the Byzantines, first against the
Sasanians, then against the Muslims. The conversion of the ruling class to Judaism did not seem to affect this relationship.
40. Romanus I: Romanus I Lecapenus, father-in-law of Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus, usurped power from his son-in-law
in 919 and held it until 944, when he was deposed by his sons.
41. Arsiyya: Derived from one of the names of the Alan people, Aorsi, another version of which is still borne by their modern
descendants, the Ossetes.
42. great river: The Volga; the tributary is the Samara, then called the Burtas, which lent its name to the people inhabiting its
banks (see next note). The city is Itil.
43. Burtas: The ancestors of the Finnish Mordve people, rather than Turks. They inhabited the forest land between the
Bulghars and the Khazars.
44. Sea ofPontus: Black Sea (Bahr Buntus), but Mas‘udl is wrong; he means the Sea of Azov.
45. Bulghar capital... Pontus: Mas‘udi was mistaken; it is on the confluence of the Volga and Kama rivers.
46. Turk ... Seventh Clime: The Bulghars were originally a Turkish people; their homeland was in the steppes in the vicinity of
the Kuban River and the Sea of Azov, and one branch (the ‘Black Bulghars’) remained there until the tenth century.
Another branch, probably because of pressure from the Khazars, migrated in 678 to the Balkans, where they founded a state
among the South Slavonic tribes, by which they were eventually absorbed. These were known to the Arab geographers as
the Burjan, a word also applied to the Burgundians (see also note 48). A third group, probably also under pressure from the
Khazars, retreated to the north along the Volga, settling at the confluence of that river with the Kama. They subjected the
local Finnish population and founded the Bulghar kingdom, which in Mas'udl’s time paid an annual tribute in sable and
other furs to the Khazars. Mas'udl’s mention of ‘310/922’ is clearly due to some memory of Ibn Fadlan’s mission to the
Bulghar king in that year, but Almish had converted to Islam at least ten years earlier.
47. Their king: This passage has caused great confusion. Mas'udI has confused the Volga Bulghars with the Balkan Bulghars,
and possibly with the Magyars as well.
48. Burgundians: Burjan ; here, confusingly, the original appellation of the Bulghars is applied to the Burgundians (cf. note 46).
49. Venice: Fanadiya, representing the Latin Venetia.
50. Mdjik: Although much discussed, no convincing Slavic etymology has been found for this word. Indeed, most of the Slavic
words in this passage are problematical. Some of the suggested identifications can be found in the following notes. The
Arabic script does not indicate short vowels and a number of letters are only distinguished by dots above or below them.
Faced with unfamiliar foreign words, scribes used their imagination. Further information on these Slavic names may
conveniently be found in Shboul (1979), 178-89.
51. Walitabd: Wiltzes? Veletians? Those that read Walinana have identified this tribal name with the Volinians on the River
Bug.
52. Istrana ... Sarbin: Istrana: perhaps the Stodorans, near the Oder River; Basqlabij: Vasclav?; Dulaba: the Western Dulebians,
a Bohemian tribe that lived on the banks of the River Laba?; Wanjslaf: almost certainly Prince Wenceslaw I (reigned 916-
935); Namjin: the Germans; the name probably represents Slavic Niemczyn (German); Gharand: perhaps Conrad I (reigned
912-919), king of the Bavarians; Manabin: variants are mayin and maghdnin, and perhaps a people dwelling on the River
Main; Sarbin: the Serbs.
53. Murawa ... Baranijabin: Murawa: the Moravians; Kharwatln: the Croats; Sasln: either the Saxons (Mas'udI numbers
Germanic peoples among the Slavs), or possibly the Czech (Cacin); Khashanln: two peoples have been suggested, the
Kaszub near the Oder River or the Balkan tribe of the Gadczans; Baranijabin: the Braniczews, a Balkan Serbian tribe?
54. to the west: Mas'udI must mean the reverse, that the Slavs extend to the west.
55. Aldayr: Unidentified; the name can also be read Aldir.
56. Bazkard: The Magyars (the Bashghird of Abu Hamid al-AndalusI).
57. the Ocean: Uqiyanus; i.e. the Atlantic.
58. bronze lighthouse: By this, Mas'udI means the Strait of Gibraltar (the Pillars of Hercules), guarded, according to legend, by
a bronze statue warning sailors not to pass into the Atlantic.
59. Sea of Azov and the Black Sea: ‘Sea of Maeotis’ and ‘Sea of Pontus’ (see notes 38 and 44).
60. trading ... Khazars: This seems to be an echo of the journeys of the Radhanlya. Lu'dhana has not been identified.
61. the river of the Khazars: Nahr al-Khazar (the Khazar River), that is, the Volga, which of course does not flow into the Sea
of Azov (what is presumably meant by the ‘Strait of Pontus’). Mas'udI seems to be thinking of the Don, or perhaps Donetz,
but the text is still confusing.
62. [is ...]: A phrase giving the distance is missing from the text.
63. Burtas: see notes 42 and 43.
64. Bardha‘a: Surrounded with orchards and fields and known for its figs, fruit, hazelnuts and silks. It is located about
fourteen miles from the Kur River, on the banks of one its tributaries, the Terter. According to Mas'udI, it was also a market
for furs from the north.
65. khulais: This word, variants of which occur in Greek and Hungarian, seems to mean ‘Khwarazmian’, here probably
referring to Khazar Turkish mercenaries from Khwarazm.
66. unrelated ... nation: The Khazars spoke a Turkic language closely related to that spoken by the Bulghars; the modern
descendant of both is Chuvash, spoken today in parts of central Russia.
67. Sarir: See Part III, note 3.
o
68. Artha ... lead: The Artha have not been satisfactorily identified; the region of Sweden facing the Aland Islands was known
in the Middle Ages as Rodhen or Rodhs, which may lie behind the Arabic Artha/Arthanlya; the similarity to the word
Radhanlya is probably fortuitous. Ibn Hawqal, who copies this passage from Istakhri, adds ‘and mercury’.
69. Greater Bulgharia ... Christians: By ‘Greater Bulgharia’ (Bulghar al-a‘zam), al-Istakhrl must mean the Volga Bulghars
visited by Ibn Fadlan. ‘Inner Bulgharia’ (Bulghar al-dakhil) refers to the Danubian Bulghars, who officially became
Christian in 867.
70. khalanji: A fur of two colours.
71. Walitabd: Walinana - see Part III, note 51.
72. Boreslav ... Nakon: Boreslav: Bwyslaw; Prague: Faragha; Bohemia: Bwyma; Cracow: Karaku; Mieszko: Mashaqu; Nakon
(Naqun), chief of the Obotrite Slav confederation of Meklenburg-Schwerin, died in 965, the year Ibrahim visited Otto.
73. Burgh ... Mayliyah: Burgh: this is guesswork, perhaps Merseburg; Mayliyah may not be a place name, but the Arabic
phrase for ‘what lies nearby it’ {mayalihi).
74. mathaqil al-marqatiyya: Mysterious; one commentator has suggested that it be read bizantina (Dubler (1953), 162),
translating the whole phrase as ‘Byzantine gold coins’. This seems unlikely, since writers of Arabic at this date invariably
use rurrti, ‘Roman’, for ‘Byzantine’. It is tempting, but probably unwarranted, to see the Latin mercatum lurking behind
marqatiyya. See Glossary for mithqal.
75. qinshar: Clearly the name of a coin of some sort, but what? The most common European silver coin in circulation at the
time was the penny (pfennig), but it is difficult to reconcile any of the names by which it was known with qinshar, which
is clearly written in MSS.
76. kerchiefs: Munaydilat khifaf The use of kerchiefs as currency is archaeologically attested, see Maresova (1976).
77. receptacles: Aw‘iya means ‘vase’, which seems an odd place to keep kerchiefs.
78. [to]: There is a word missing in MS here and below.
79. City of Women: The City - or Island - of Women is a topos of Arabic, indeed of medieval geographical literature, inherited
from the classical tradition. Idrlsi, the twelfth-century Sicilian geographer, locates it on an island in the Atlantic, Qazwini
in the China Sea.
80. king of the Romans: Malik al-rum; usually refers to the Byzantine emperor, but here it must be an attempt to render the
title rex Romanorum. Otto I was crowned emperor in 961.
81. pilings: This last phrase is guesswork; the text reads wa hum yasta ‘maluna la-hu shuturan harlan; the final two words, both
in the accusative case, are meaningless. Ibrahim is describing the harbour at Schleswig; at the nearby port of Hedeby,
marine archaeologists have discovered rows of log pilings, almost certainly revetments of the early medieval harbour
(Crumin-Pedersen (1997), 37). We have read sutur (‘rows; lines’) and taken the meaningless harl (with emphatic h ) to have
originally stood for a word signifing a kind of log or wood.
82. 912: Boris I converted to Christianity in 865.
83. Gulf of Venice ... Italy. Buhayra banajiya (the lake of Venice); Ibrahim’s spelling of Venice is close to the old Italian form
‘Venigia’, although it is difficult to explain the long a in the second syllable. Al-ard al-kabira (the great land), an expression
usually used of ‘mainland’ Europe, but here it seems to refer to Italy.
84. Germans ... Hungarians: Respectively, Tudishklyln, cf. Italian ‘Tedeschi’; Anqallyln, perhaps to be read unqariyin.
85. saba: There is a word missing from MS at the beginning of this sentence; saba does not resemble any Slavonic bird name,
although there is a scholarly consensus that the starling is meant; see Rapoport (1929), 339, n. 3.
86. fanak: Normally the fennec, but we think it means ‘mink’ here.
87. Ma’mun: This must be Ma’mun ibn Muhammad, who was ruler of Gurganj before becoming Khwarazm Shah in 995; see
Dunlop (1954), 246-7.
88. conquered their lands: This is a reference to the conquest of the Khazars by the Kieven Rus and their Ghuzz allies in 965.
89. closer ... the capital: MuqaddasI is confused; Bulghar is some 800 miles upstream from the Khazar capital.
90. Khazar ... river: Thus not another name for Itil.
91. gulf: Probably the Caspian Sea.
92. Bulghar and Khazaran: They were attacked by the Rus between 965 and 967. The date given by Ibn Hawqal must be the
year he heard the news. Khazaran is the name of one of the two districts into which the town of Itil was divided.
93. 912: Vladimir converted in 988; probably a copyist’s mistake.
94. yiltawar: The text reads b.t.ltw, Ibn Fadlan’s yiltawar, the title of the Bulghar king. It is clear from this passage that
MarwazI thought ‘Vladimir’ was a title, not a personal name.
95. khadang: This equals khadank in Ibn Fadlan (birch).
96. fish ... and such like: Narwhal and walrus horn, called khutu, was much prized for its durability and was the preferred
material for knife handles; see Lavers and Knapp (2008).
97. suwit ... shrih: suwit: must represent the first element in the name Svetopolk (see note 26); shrih (sh.rih in MS) has not
been satisfactorily explained, see Minorsky (1942), 117.
98. their country: The Tatar lands north-east of the Caspian.
99. this king: Conci (Kaunchi), a Tatar, agent of the Da’i: This was the IsmaTlI agent al-Hasan ibn al-Qasim al-Hasanl. The da’i
(he who summons’) was chief propagandist for the IsmaTlI sect.
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